Rose hope to be looking up the League Two table this season after maintaining unbeaten start

The New Dundas Park side continued their unbeaten start to the season as they took a point at home to Stranraer. Rose looked set to take all three after Neil Martynuik’s first half penalty had them leading until the 83rd minute when substitute Deryn Lang struck the equaliser.

“We were disappointed to lose a goal late in the game, but ultimately, I didn’t think it was a great performance, I don’t think either team were particularly great,” said Horn. “I thought the conditions had a major impact on the game, the wind was so strong out there and people probably didn’t appreciate how difficult it was to play in it.

“I thought we might dig it out, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We could have maybe killed it off when Robbie [McGale] went through one-on-one, with their keeping making a decent save. For most of it we defended our box pretty well and then we lose a goal in a split second; to be fair it was a great finish from the boy.

“Probably over the piece a draw was a fair result, but it feels like two points dropped as we were in a winning position. It’s three games unbeaten for us, but we are better than what we showed. I thought we were a wee bit lethargic and a bit flat.”

Horn has overseen the biggest transition in the playing squad since his first spell at the club with long-servants Dean Brett, Alan Horne and Scott Gray three of their key departures over the summer. Youthfulness has been injected into the squad with six of their seven new recruits being under the age of 25.

Horn continued: “The last couple of seasons we have made changes, and that sometimes needs to happen for a club to evolve. We’ve brought energy and legs into the team, we’ve added and I think we are bit stronger than last year. I’ve got a fairly big squad so there is competition for places, everyone has got to fight to keep their place, which is a good thing. I also think as a group, we know what it’s all about, mentally we are stronger than this point last season. Last season, I think we might have lost that game.

“We want to improve on last season. I don’t think is a lot between the teams in the league, it is very competitive, and you need to be as best as you possibly can in every game. We don’t want to be where we were last season, it wasn’t enjoyable, we had a great run towards the end of the season when we picked up points, but we want to be looking up the way rather than over our shoulder.”

Next up for Rose is a trip to Forfar on Saturday, a club who they avoided defeat against in the four meetings last season.