Stenhousemuir FC: Boss Gary Naysmith delighted with 5-0 win over Stranraer after two-week break from League 2 action
Stenny – who won thanks to goals by Matthew Aitken (penalty), Gregor Buchanan (2) and Adam Brown (2) – have 11 points from six fixtures which puts them level on points with leaders Bonnyrigg Rose, third-placed Dumbarton and fourth-placed Stranraer.
"It was a really good complete performance from the players,” Naysmith told Warriors TV post match. “The first decision we had to make today was who was going to start because everybody’s playing well.
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Hide Ad"We had a friendly win against Stirling Albion last week. “Euan (O’Reilly) and James Berry were excellent and they never played (against Stranraer). And Jordan (Kirkpatrick) had started the game before at Spartans and we won.
"So it was a very, very difficult decision on the starting team today and I explained that to the players.
"The subs that came on (O’Reilly, Berry and Kirkpatrick) weren’t sulking about not playing. They played their part as well so overall a very pleasing day for everybody connected with the club.
"We’ve got quite a small squad so we trained them quite hard on the Tuesday and we played Stirling Albion here in a friendly on the Thursday and it was a good performance, a good victory.
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Hide Ad"And we gave the players the weekend off just to recharge. Then they got what you would probably class as a pre-season day on the Tuesday when they came back in.
"And then Thursday was just more tactical stuff, then we came into the game today.
"So we feel that we got that right because even in the 90th minute – and goals help – but we still looked like we had a lot of energy.
"The big difference was that previously we had been creating chances in games but not taking them. Today we converted the chances that we created and ended up putting the ball in the net five times which is always very pleasing.
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Hide Ad"We can’t get carried away. Stranraer just had one of those days where things maybe just didn’t go for them and we were very clinical.
"Stranraer have done really well this season. They were above us going into the game and that was motivation for the players, saying: ‘Look we need to try and get those three points back’, making sure we’re level in the table and the players have done that.”
Stenny travel to leaders Bonnyrigg this Saturday which means a reunion for Naysmith with Rose gaffer Robbie Horn.
The former Scotland left back added: “Bonnyrigg are going really well. I think Robbie’s done a fantastic job.
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Hide Ad"I was at Hearts with Robbie so I’m close pals with him. They have brought in changes to their squad which have enhanced it.
"The pitch is a bit of a leveller but that’s the challenge. That’s what this league’s about, every game’s different.
"But I think it will be a really, really hard game. We will give them the respect they deserve but I try and focus more about us, about how we can hurt the opposition.”