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Annan savour historic league win

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Chris Jardine | 19:20 UK time, Thursday, 10 March 2011

Forgive me if this week's column is solely about

It's been far too long in coming and the only way I can really describe it is as sheer relief.

That was the emotion I had when I finally heard the referee blow his whistle, after what felt like the longest second half in history.

Although I didn't feel it too much during the match, I felt completely exhausted as soon as it was over.

Ian Harty, seen here in his Stirling Albion days, scored Annan's second against Stranraer. Photo: SNS.

Ian Harty, seen here in his Stirling Albion days, scored Annan's second against Stranraer. Photo: SNS.

It was a wee while before I began to think what a massive three points it was for us on Tuesday night.

The victory proved to be even more important when we saw the results of the other games and in particular the wins for both Queen's Park and Berwick Rangers.

It keeps things nice and tight between the chasing pack, with Arbroath beginning to stretch away from the rest of us a little bit.

I don't think there's much doubt they have the strongest squad in the division and, even though they had a tricky start to the season, I always felt they would be the one's we all had to stop.

I'm sure there wouldn't be too many of the players down at Annan who would argue that this "midweek hoodoo" had become a bit of a mental problem with us.

It certainly plays on your mind when you're out there on the pitch.

Personally, after the Berwick Rangers game last week, I was worried it wasn't going to happen this season at all.

I felt good about the team in the build-up and felt comfortable being one goal in front. I know I've said a lot recently about missed chances coming back at you but during that game I honestly never thought we would lose a goal.

We all know that Berwick equalised, and I certainly thought to myself "not again".

The heads went down, the fans got frustrated and another one was gone without that win.

You can't get away from people reminding you either. I'd have my mates emailing me on the day of a game telling me they'd backed our opponents or put us down for a draw but never a win.

I spoke to my uncle after the Arbroath game on Saturday and he told me that it would be two defeats on the bounce because we never win midweek and Stranraer would beat us.

Obviously they're having a joke at our expense but that's the situation we found ourselves in.

That one has gone now, though, but I'm sure we'll read about us winning only one midweek game in the SFL in the lead up to next week's game at East Stirlingshire!

The game itself on Tuesday night wasn't pretty at times but I would say that we created the better chances and limited Stranraer to very little.

The conditions were poor with a strong wind making it difficult for both teams. We responded magnificently from going a goal down with Sean O'Connor equalising immediately and Ian Harty scoring the winner after a really good move.

The two goals we scored were really pleasing, particularly the second when there must have been five or six players involved in the build-up.

The manager made a couple of changes to the side from Arbroath and it worked a treat with Harty scoring and Aaron Muirhead having his best game for weeks.

It was a change in position for Aero but he was a constant threat down the right hand side and that was shown with his assists for both goals.

I know he was surprised to be in the team after his suspension, particularly as we knew he would be out again for Saturday's trip to Elgin.

As I say, it worked out perfectly and the manager was shown to be correct in his decision. All it means is there will be changes again this weekend.

The manager has gone soft on us this week by giving the boys Thursday night off from training.

I'm not sure if it's a reward for Tuesday's win or because he's got another parents' evening at his school!

Whatever it was, there was no-one complaining. I for one will certainly be taking it easy trying to get these old legs back to normal for our long journey at the weekend.

See you next week.

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