Scorers: Stranraer – Lang (46); Stirling Albion – Laird (5)
Early goals and late drama brought the curtain down on another rollercoaster campaign at the LIME Stadium.
Stranraer, realistically, needed a win to keep pace with Forfar Athletic and to take their play-off bid to the last day of the season.
Instead, despite plenty of hard work, determination and second half chances, they fell just short against Stirling Albion.
The home side made two changes from the defeat to Forfar Athletic seven days earlier.
James Dolan and Ronan Hughes were brought in as Jordan Stuart moved to the bench and Sal Turay missed out through injury.
The Blues would have been keen on a dream start and an early goal to put pressure on Forfar but instead found themselves a goal down with just five minutes on the clock.
Dylan Wells found Austin Laird on the edge of the box and the Stirling man danced inside a couple of challenges before firing beyond Lyndon Tas.
Stranraer created several half chances in response.
Lewis Reid turned a corner towards goal while defensive partner Joseph McGrath flicked a header over the bar.
Stranraer’s best chance of the opening 45 minutes would fall to Aaron Quigg.
Reid went long with a ball straight down the middle of the park.
Quigg managed to get his head to it but could not get enough on it to lift it over Derek Gaston.
There would, however, be plenty of drama in the second half.
In fact, not even 60 seconds had been played before Stranraer pulled level.
Daniel McManus lifted a cross to the back post and Deryn Lang was there to nod home.
As expected, it was a goal that rejuvenated Stranraer and drove them forward in numbers for much of the remainder of the game.
Lang, McManus, Ronan Hughes and Quigg were all denied within the space of a few seconds in a goalmouth scramble as Stranraer increasingly went for it.
Dean Cleland, Ryan Edgar and the returning Robbie Foster were all brought on in a bid to find a second goal.
And Foster – making his first appearance of the season after a lengthy injury – came so close to getting it.
He got on the end of Finn Ecrepont’s corner but saw his low shot come back off the post.
Edgar was then inches away from connecting with another Ecrepont cross as time started to tick away from Stranraer.
Incredibly, there would be plenty of drama contained within stoppage time.
Goalkeeper Tas was sent forward into a congested penalty box for another corner but it was claimed by Gaston.
He immediately sent Stirling on the counter attack and when Stuart failed to deal with the danger he was left with no choice but to bring down Stirling substitute JJ McIntyre.
Referee Connor Ashwood was left with no choice but to send off the Stranraer man and award a penalty to the visitors.
Up stepped former Stranraer favourite Mark Russell but he then saw his spot kick saved by Tas to give the home side one last bit of hope.
It was Stranraer’s turn to counter and Cleland was close to making himself a hero but he could not direct Ecrepont’s cross on target.
That was just about that as Stranraer came ever so close to a famous victory.
In the end, a play-off place was just beyond the club’s reach.
A final game of the season takes Stranraer to Elgin City with the Blues looking to finish in fifth – a big step in the right direction on recent years.
Stranraer: Tas, Coll (Ecrepont 77), Reid, McGrath, Dunne, Quigg, Gillies (Stuart 77), Hughes (Cleland 65), Dolan (Foster 77), Lang (Edgar 70), McManus.
Not used: Hunter, Lynch, McKnight and Currie.
Stirling Albion: Gaston, Campbell, Denham (Cannon 68), Banner, Kerr, Carse, Russell, Laird (McIntyre 88), Thomson (Knox 56), Wells (Raine 88), Hilson (Breslin 57).
Not used: Dobbs, Moffat, Nelson and Duffy.
Referee: Connor Ashwood
Attendance: 516
HT: 0-1
Photos: Ian Irvine-Watson