SPL, led to Scottish Football League member clubs voting Rangers into the Third Division. This meant that an additional team from each tier of Scottish football was promoted for the 2012–13 season. As Stranraer were runners up in the previous season's third division promotion play-offs, they were promoted to the Second Division. They secured their place in the third tier of Scottish football after a 2–1 win at Stenhousemuir on the final day of the season, but only after Stephen Aitken had taken over from Knox in October. The club then settled well in the third tier under manager Stephen Aitken, finishing third behind full-time Rangers and Dunfermline Athletic in 2013–14 and second behind full-time Morton the following season. Stranraer's Boxing Day draw at Ibrox in 2013 saw the club scoring their first goal against Rangers and taking their first point off the Glasgow club. In both of these seasons, however, they were knocked out of the promotion play-offs at the semi-final stage. During this spell the club also performed well in the cups – defeating Ross County in the League Cup, taking Inverness to a Scottish Cup replay, and only losing out on penalties to Livingston in the semi-final of the Petrofac Challenge Cup. Aitken impressed to the extent that he was recruited by Championship side Dumbarton in May 2015 and was quickly replaced by former Ayr United manager Brian Reid. Stranraer started the 2015–16 season horrendously and were bottom of the table at Christmas. A great run afterwards, however, saw them finish 4th and qualify for the promotion play-offs for a third successive season. This was the seventh time Stranraer had taken part in a relegation/promotion play-off in only 11 years of the system's implementation. They failed to achieve their target in the first six times, although in 2008 and 2012 they eventually achieved promotion as losing finalists because of another club's misfortune. In the semi-finals they faced Livingston, who had finished 9th in the Scottish Championship. They were victorious 5–2 at Stair Park but two late goals for Livi in the second leg made it 6–6 on aggregate (away goals not counting in the playoffs), forcing extra time. Stranraer scored twice to lose the match 4–3 and win 8–6 on aggregate. They faced Ayr United in the two-legged finals for a place in the second tier. Stranraer drew 1–1 with Ayr in the first leg at Stair