This website was started early in 1995 when I lived in Canada and news about Stranraer FC was next to impossible to come by. The site soon grew with visitors from all over the world dropping to get the latest going on at Stair Park. At this stage it was just a one man show, with updates once a week. However, this changed in 1999 when I was approached to join the Rivals.com network.

The site became The Bandstand and featured match reports, statistics, a message board, competitions, and lots of news. The addition of the messageboard was really popular, and we were regularly getting twelve thousand hits per month (I think we got 25,000 when we played Celtic in the Scottish Cup!). Help also arrived during this period in the form of Laurence Nelson, Cosmo and Disco Pants, all of whom wrote articles for the site. Lasting friendships (and rivalries) were also made at this time through the initiation of the Stair Park Sweep. Participants from all over the world took part, with the most vocal supporters coming from Australia (Ed and Julian) and New Zealand (Malcolm).

The bursting of the Dot.com bubble saw The Bandstand, along with all Scottish Division One, Two and Three sites, leaving Rivals.com. With the help of the former-Rivals Montrose publisher, John Wards, a new network was created (The Sport Network) and The Bandstand became Stranraerfc.net. Most of The Bandstand faithful left the old site and loyally took up residence at the new domain. Ben Allen took over writing some of the match reports as I was still in Canada, but moved on to the official site when I came back to Europe.

Since arriving back in Europe my work commitments have steadily increased, to such an extend that I have no time to update the site regularly. The official site during this time has gone from strength to strength under the watchful eye of Gavin Parker and Gary Langley, and now has site features that any football team can be proud of. With this in mind I decided to pull the plug on the site at the end of last season when Stranraer won the Third Division Championship.

If you would like to resurrect the site and have a shot at running it yourself, please contact John Wards - competition always keeps the standards high!

Thank you all for making the running of this site so pleasurable over the last nine years, and hopefully we can catch up for a pint somewhere.

Sandy Archibald