Bonnyrigg Rose live to fight another day as Aaron Arnott strikes at the death

Aaron Arnott fires home the winner for Rose. Picture: Joe Gilhooley LRPS

Aaron Arnott fired home in the sixth minute of stoppage time to seal a 2-1 win over Spartans at New Dundas Park, a result that sees bottom-of-the-table Rose move to within two points of Forfar ahead of the final round of fixtures this weekend.

Jonny Stewart's men make the long journey to Stranraer knowing that anything other than victory at Stair Park will consign them to a two-legged play-off against either East Kilbride or Brora Rangers. Kilby are strong favourites, however, having seen off the Highland League champions 4-1 in Saturday's first leg.

Forfar, who drew 0-0 at Edinburgh City, are at home to Stirling Albion on Saturday where a draw would more than likely be enough to preserve their SPFL status given they have a vastly superior goal difference.

However, Rose boss Stewart is delighted his side still have a fighting chance.

"Great scenes that we've seen many times, especially since I've been at the club," he said. "The players gave it absolute everything on the pitch right until the end and the supporters were right behind them.

"Unfortunately we're not quite there yet as it's still out of our hands, but that for us was massive - to keep it going and take it down until the last game. It puts a wee bit of pressure on Forfar but we just have to go and take care of ourselves.

"The last two weeks I feel we've looked like a proper team as the boys are all in it together and showing a lot of fight and character. It would have been easy for them to let their heads go down when Spartans equalised with only five minutes left to go, but they showed great mental strength to recover and go and get the winner."

Spartans' 2-1 loss confirmed they will miss out on the promotional play-offs as they trail fourth-placed Elgin City by six points with just one left to play.

Dougie Samuel's men host Edinburgh City this weekend with the visitors having already secured their play-off berth. The Citizens are currently third and victory will confirm a top-three finish.