Forfar Athletic earned a point against 10-man Stranraer but are still waiting for their first win under manager Gary Bollan.
But the Loons boss firmly believes those three points are getting closer and hailed his side’s second-half showing as evidence of what Forfar have to do and are capable of doing to earn them.
“We were probably fortunate to come in at half-time just one down. They created a few chances and we never really played in the first half,” he said.
“But I thought in the second half we upped our performance and took the game to Stranraer and deservedly got the equaliser,” he said.
“When we don’t have the ball we have to go and get it back again as soon as we can. We have players in there who, when they have got the ball, can go and win games for us.”
One of those players looks to be Andy Ryan, who lashed home Forfar’s equaliser with a brilliant strike.
“We know we are short of a striker, and over the last couple of weeks I thought we were close a couple of times.
“But again this week we will see if we can bring in a fresh face.”
It truly was a game of two halves as Stranraer controlled the first in terms of possession and chances, with Forfar shading the second.
The visitors went ahead in the 34th minute. Stirling played a lovely cross into the far post and Jamie Longworth just got in ahead of the defender to turn the ball over the line.
Route one took Forfar to an equaliser after 54 minutes.
A goal-kick was flicked on by Gavin Swankie to Andy Ryan and he powered goalwards and drilled a low shot in to beat Cameron Belford at his near post.
Moments later Swankie missed a sitter, blasting over the bar with only the keeper to beat when he could even have opted to square to Ryan for a tap-in.
Swankie again got clear in the 75th minute but this time he was tripped by Scott Rumsby, who saw red for his last-man tackle.