Today has been a difficult day for us, however on the day we were beaten by a better team, I think that Brechin City are obviously on a high from their victory on Tuesday night against Dundee in the CIS Cup and for the first 45 minutes they were easily the better team. We were fortunate to go in at half-time only 2-1 down , I think Brechin had maybe about 10 shots at goal and we had only two in the first half. Then having got ourselves back into the game I hoped we would have managed to get something from the game and for first 20 minutes in the second half I thought we looked as though we had pressed them and when we had the chance that fell to Bryan Prunty, but he just put it wide and Scott Walker and Darren Smith also had shots at goal in that spell, which I thought we were the better team but the game evened itself out again and unfortunately for us it was Brechin who got the 4th goal and the crucial goal and after that the game sort of died. Today we were just beaten by the better team, we just need to take it on the chin and move on and try and make sure we are better by the time we play Ayr United. I am disappointed for the fans who have travelled here today to support us and saw us play so poorly but we need to do better than that.

Allan Maitland - Team Manager

Allan Maitland after Aberdeen Game

We obviously came tonight with a game plan and we knew how the game was going to pan out, in the first 20 minutes I thought we did fine, but mistakes at this level will kill us and that is exactly what happened, when they scored their goal to go 1-0 up and we are down to 10 men if someone had said at that stage it will finish 3-0 I think in fairness we would probably have taken that and we have came out of the game with a bit of pride, in fact it was a good night – we now need to focus on Saturday, good luck to Aberdeen I hope they do well. We have had a wonderful start to the season, it was always going to be a hard game the team were excellent and I could not have asked for anymore.
Asked about the pitch and the injuries – The second one is an injury and nothing to do with the park, David Gormley has caught Zander Diamond, I didn’t really see what happened to Fraser Fyvie, it was right in front of us, but when he was coming off I thought he might have been wearing blades, and I think blades are foolish on this surface, I think anybody would tell you that, but I don’t know, I don’t even know how serious the injury is and I think they don’t think its as serious first thought and he has had knocks in the past and maybe he is a bit sensitive about it – if there is injuries due to the park that is unusual. On the sending off, in fairness to Stephen Robertson, he said Allan I stayed up as long as I could and Fraser Fyvie just knocked it bye me and couldn’t get there and ran into me, but from where I am it looked like a penalty so I have no problem with the decision, I thought the referee and officials were great.

Aberdeen Manager Mark McGhee after CIS Cup game

The result has come at a price, obviously what we are concerned about is that we have lost two players and we do not know the cost of that - I don’t know that it is worth it. I thought it was a reasonable enough performance in difficult conditions – it is a difficult pitch for us and the players have dealt with it fairly well. We are unsure how bad Fraser Fyvie’s injury is until we have a look at him or scan him in the morning, he certainly looked in agony but I think it is the pitch. A lot of these pitches have been built across the country for teams to play and train on but I think at this level the competitiveness of it and the pace that we are trying to play and move at it does make it a little bit more difficult and I think there could be a case for much more specialist footwear – I don’t know how scientific they are about the footwear they wear – they look as if they are wearing rubbers and the moulds the same as our boys but I think there has to be a bit of thought about that because clearly there are peoples feet sticking and players getting injuries. I was worried about the surface – Peter Pawlett went out in the warm up and felt it right away, the surface affected him before he got going and that is why he wasn’t involved. Fraser Fyvie seemed to twist his knee, but we will need to see how it is in the morning, get the experts to check him but the boy seemed to be badly hurt. I think Zander should have got rid of the ball earlier but I think he kind of kicked into the ground, again – there’s no give in it is there? His foot stuck and his knee rocked and he is feeling it on the inside of his ligament – hopefully again that will settle down but again I think the pitch was partly responsible. Up to that point I thought he was brilliant, he was getting on with it and looked the brightest of all of them and I was gutted for him – he has been desperate for his chance, he had a great pre-season and he has not been in the team simply because we have needed a balance – needed Pawlett in there – Fraser got his chance tonight and was taking it before the injury.
 

Tonight we welcome the mighty Aberdeen to the “Recs” for our second round tie in the CIS Cup and hope their large following enjoy much better weather conditions than they experienced here last year when it poured constantly throughout the entire match when we met in the Scottish Cup. I understand the media’s fascination with Aberdeen’s poor record in cup competitions in recent years but the change in personnel in Mark McGhee and Scott Leitch’s team over the summer makes this group almost unrecognisable from the side that struggled against lower league opposition last season. The return from injury of Zander Diamond, Sone Aluko, Peter Pawlett, Fraser Fyvie and Andy Considine has immediately made them better and the introduction of Mark Howard, Rory McArdle, Yoann Folly, Scott Vernon and Josh Magennis will have given the squad the freshness needed after a disappointing season. However the major coup for Mark has been the signing of Paul Hartley who has come in as his captain and will I’m sure give the young players the encouragement they need along with the benefit of his experiences of playing at the top level. The fact that he was able to score three penalties in the Dons first game was an added bonus and immediately endeared him to the “Red Army” who recognise what he can bring to their club.

Having said that there is no doubt that by bringing so many new players together it may take time for them to gel and we will take heart from the fact that we’re at home and have started the season quite brightly. The players at this club will relish the opportunity of playing against SPL players and will hope that they can give Aberdeen something different from what they experience in a normal SPL match. I believe that we have become a better attacking side than we were last year although that invariably means that you are more open and more likely to concede goals – we are still trying to get that balance right but know that tonight presents us with an opportunity of giving our supporters a night to remember. We are under no illusion of the task ahead and know that for a shock result we need every player to play at his very best and hope that Aberdeen have an off night – difficult but certainly not impossible. As I’ve hinted at already this game will be much more difficult than any game against the Aberdeen side from last season.

Our last home match against East Fife produced another high scoring game where a fantastic header from Jim Lister goal secured the points in a five goal thriller. The first half was without goals but not without incident with Andy Scott missing a penalty and a sitter while Stevie Robertson had a great save to prevent Bobby Linn from opening the scoring. Bryan Prunty scored early from close range in the second half but we soon found ourselves chasing the game after goals from Craig Johnson and Jonathan Smart. Thankfully we equalised when Kevin McDonald scored from the spot after being brought down in the box and then flighted a superb ball into the box for big Jim to bullet his header into the top corner. A repeat performance and result tonight would be greatly appreciated.

I hope you all enjoy tonight’s game and as always would like to take the opportunity of thanking you for your support.       

Allan Maitland

Team Manager

Allan Maitland after Stenhousemuir victory

We have started this season really open and have been scoring freely but also been losing goals at the other end, today we have just tried to tighten things up, we brought John Grant in recognising that Stenhousemuir themselves have had a great start to the season and I thought we started the game really well, pressed the game and merited our goal, albeit a mistake by the Stenhousemuir defender but a great finish by Bryan Prunty and with the strikers we have at this club, if we can keep clean sheets we have a great chance and today was the first time this season we have had a really professional performance, in the second half even although we gave them a lot of the ball and playing 4-4-1 at the end I can’t remember anytime they got through us, anytime they got in behind us, thought we defended really well. The save by Stephen Robertson right on half time was crucial and in the second half we sorted things out, Scott Walker & Billy Gibson were excellent but as a team game today they all worked really hard and again the substitutes played their part, Andy Scott, Jim Lister and Jamie Hay came on and helped add their support, at times you will need to go away from home and grind out results and that’s exactly what we did today, when we got a hold of the ball we showed a lot of composure from the edge of our box until their 18 yard line bit didn’t show enough composure in final quarter of pitch, but it’s a great result for us and makes the start of the season a fantastic start, seven points out of nine having played two games away from home, so I am really very pleased. This was a great win we stamped our authority on the game, killed it, a professional performance which fully merited our 1-0 victory.

John Coughlin Stenhousemuir manager –

To be perfectly honest I think we were non competitive today, we normally put teams under pressure, we want the ball and show some composure in our play, we had plenty of possession of the ball especially in the second half when Alloa went one up front and we had the ball as much as you could like but its what you do with it , Stephen Robertson had a few saves to make but not any more than our goalkeeper in the game. Our start to the game was very poor, or concentration levels were terrible in the first ten minutes, but today I just never had the feeling we were the team to go and turn things round, we made changes at half time but it didn’t really effect the game. Some of the Alloa players had really good games today, Scott Walker was excellent and did really well for them, but we should be doing better at home, and we know we can do better, but I didn’t get the feeling there was that enthusiasm to go and turn the game around and that was disappointing, we lacked spark today. Alloa scored a goal of our mistake when Gart Thom was short with a pass back, it gave Bryan Prunty the chance and he is one of the last people on the planet you would want to a chance like that, so that kind of summed up the start of the game we had, it is a local derby so there should be a bit of pride and passion shown and I thought today we were found wanting in that today.

In the first half of the game we had what looked like a great start with a penalty kick – it’s not like Andy Scott to miss penalty kicks  - strangely enough he has missed two here both against East Fife  and I felt that after that East Fife played really well in the first half – we had a great chance to go ahead and we missed it, in the first half they passed the ball really well and showed great energy, they were  causing us a lot of problems particularly with Bobby Linn and Stephen Robertson had to make a magnificent save at the top right hand corner in the first half, and just before half-time, Andy Scott had another great chance, but somehow missed the target.  In the second half we came out  - we started much better – Bryan Prunty scored us a preditors goal and last season that would have finished the game at 1-0, maybe 2-0, if we defended really well , but that has not happened with Alloa this season, we have been quite exciting to watch particularly our second half performances, we had to show a lot of  courage against East Stirling to come back , last week against Livingston to come back and then again today, we lost poor goals but showed fantastic character and Jim Lister has given us something different – he comes on every game and gives us something different – today was his first competitive goal since joining in the close season with a fantastic header and for me the good thing was that Kevin McDonald and Stuart Noble who I took off at half time last week  as they were both poor but I thought today they were both excellent – it means we have lots of competition for places with Dougie Wilson coming on today, David Gormley also  came on today and Jim Lister came on obviously and we managed to go on and win it.   Today makes the start of the season for me a great start – a good start – we had a good win at East Stirling a good point last week and then winning a home game in the league so now we can look forward to next week and hopefully build on that.  Delighted – a great start to the season – I was really pleased.

Allan Maitland

Team Manager 

I’d like to offer a warm welcome to all Alloa supporters for our first home game of the season and thank them for the tremendous support we’ve received over the last three weeks at Dundee, East Stirling and Livingston. It’s been a very difficult start to the season and our victory at East Stirling and hard earned point at Livingston last Saturday have given us a decent return.
Today, with the visit of East Fife I expect another extremely difficult match. In our games against them last season they played some great football but lacked a cutting edge – with the signings of Steven Hyslop and Kurtis Byrne they have been scoring freely in their opening games. These signings appear to have allowed Bobby Linn the freedom to attack from the midfield and he is showing the form that we all know he is capable of. Stevie Crawford will be keen for his side to be challenging at the top end of the table this season and their squad shows real improvement on last year.
Our point at Livingston last Saturday was more down to guts and determination rather than a polished footballing performance. In the first half I felt we were second to most balls and looked exposed by a very energetic and talented front three of Iain Russell, Robbie Winters and Bobby Barr, in fact the game could have been finished by half time. The introduction of Andy Scott and in particular Jim Lister allowed us to adopt a more direct style of football that paid dividends with Darren Smith and Bryan Prunty scoring to get us back on level terms. Unfortunately we then gifted our hosts a third goal when Declan inadvertently scored an og. The players didn’t allow this to deflate them and showed great spirit and determination to get another equaliser in the final minutes when our third substitute David Gormley did tremendously well to reach another Jim Lister knock down before being brought down for a penalty. Andy Scott appeared to be the calmest person in the ground when he scored the penalty after a long delay when their player was stretchered off. There was still time at the end for Declan to redeem himself when he cleared off the line after another dangerous Livingston move. There is no doubt that last week was a point gained rather than two points lost when you consider the half time position and our overall performance. We know we need to improve if we hope to challenge again this season but I have great faith in this squad of players to succeed.
Today will be the first opportunity for our fans to see our summer signings in competitive action at the Recs. During the summer we signed Stevie Robertson, Jamie Ewings, Declan McAvoy, Billy Gibson, Mick Dunlop, Darren Smith, Kevin McDonald and Jim Lister and it will take time for these players to gel but I know you will give them time and patience to settle in at Alloa.
Wardy, Ronnie, Hilly, Jim Law and I hope we can use the experience and disappointment of last season to our advantage and learn from our mistakes to make the team and club successful.
I hope you all enjoy today’s game.

Allan Maitland
Team Manager
 

Allan Maitland after Livingston Game

I want to start by saying how disappointed I am in how we played and give credit to Livingston I thought they were excellent from the start, obviously for us we felt the first 20 minutes would have been really important in the game and in a minute and a half we were a goal down and in, twenty minutes 2-0 down and in all fairness at half time it could have been any score.  I thought Livingston played really well, the front two plus Bobby Barr really caused us real problems – I had a few choice words at half time obviously, but I felt that we contributed to our own downfall with the defending  - first goal awful, second goal dreadful, third goal we didn’t get any better I have to say - at least in the second half when Jim Lister came on his presence up the park, and the ball started sticking up the park we had good support coming from the middle of the park Darren Smith scored a fantastic goal which  gives us a lift and then when Bryan Prunty scored a goal when Cameron MacDonald made a defensive error and Prunty pounced.  We got ourselves back into the game – not by playing well but by sheer persistence.  We then managed to give away a third goal and could have lost another  - I was very pleased to get ourselves back into the game with a penalty kick which shows a bit of spirit I have to say – you know for all I am critiscing the way we played at least the team showed a bit of spirit to get themselves back into the game but they didn't deserve a point today, on the day Livingston were better than us  so we are thankful for the point.  I think the game was typified with two things one is we lose a goal in the first couple of minutes  when we wanted to try and make life difficult for them and by the end of the game we get a corner kick when it is 3 each and we charge up the park trying to score a winner in a day when quite frankly we were awful we should have accepted that, taken a short corner and tried to play out time instead of that Livingston got a great break and could have scored a 4^th goal which was only prevented with Declan McAvoy redeeming himself by clearing off the line.  It’s a great point but not a great day for us so we need to improve dramatically if we are going to do anything this year. 

Allan Maitland - Team Manager

 Allan Maitland after East Stirling Game

I felt at 1-0 that Dundee looked as though they had nothing left to give – I felt we were quite comfortable at 1-0, then Andy Scott hit the bar and obviously had that gone in it could have been game over, but I think to be fair to Dundee the subs made a difference to them, the team looked as though they were a bit flat before that and the subs gave them a bit energy as well. Sean Higgins kept to that small area in the box and Paul McHale got further up the park so that gave us a wee bit more of a problem and something more to think about but even at that I didn’t think our goal keeper had any saves to make. Andy Scott coming off was a problem for us because he was making clever runs he was causing them a problem, in doing so keeping Gary Harkins further back and when he came of Declan McAvoy who is a natural left back was playing in a more defensive role which allowed Dundee to come into that area, particularly Gary Irvine. It was a great ball for the goal and a great header by Colin McMenamin, but we were a bit unlucky that our keeper didn’t save it. I thought we were really unfortunate to lose the game but these things happen – we were under pressure, and a the shot breaks off Mark Brown and fell kindly to Sean Higgins who initially looked off side but I presume he wasn’t, however it’s a good finish although Stephen Robertson got a hand to it – the power forced the ball over the line. We allowed Dundee a lot of the ball and asked them to break us down to start with, in the first 15 minutes of the match I though Dundee were miles better than Alloa we didn’t show any composure during that spell but once we sorted it out and brought Stuart Noble a bit deeper and tidied that up I thought we defended really well against them – I can’t remember our goalkeeper making too many saves. I knew we would get a chance at some stage and our goal was a great finish from Scott Walker from a Kevin McDonald cross and I think the two defining moments of the game were - Andy Scott’s shot of the cross bar which would have made it 2-0 and their equalising goal which brought them right back into the game. I am pleased with our performance – it’s a difficult place to come and I thought it was a great performance from the boys and we were a little unfortunate in the end result, but we obviously wish Dundee all the best going forward into the next round and I’m pleased with all my debutants today and it was a good performance, I’m sure the players and our fans can take great credit from this display.

Allan Maitland - Manager
 

First and foremost it is only fitting to congratulate Cowdenbeath who were excellent today, they played really well – I thought in the first half they passed the ball well but we had the best chances. Unfortunately, David Hay had a great save in that spell from Bryan Prunty and we missed a couple of chances. In the second half I thought they were the better side and deserved to win it. At the end of the game I was listing the players who were not available today, Mark Gilhaney, Stuart Noble, Scot Buist, Tony Stevenson, Declan McAvoy who was injured in the warm up, Dougie Wilson and Brown Ferguson. I then had Andy Scott being injured after only ten minutes and Bryan Prunty having to leave the game with knocks, along with David McClune & Gary Carroll who were injured but still on the park. In fairness to the players they have been magnificent this year – our season ended today, if it wasn’t today it would have ended Wednesday or Sunday but you cannot go with that list of players out and expect to win the play offs. I have nothing but admiration for the team and wish Cowdenbeath every success – I hope they go on and manage to win the Play Off final now, we have come on leaps and strides this year and what we will try and do is build on that for next year. I have nothing but pride for all the players who have been involved at this club this season, but by the end of this game it was boys against men and unfortunately for us the men were just that bit stronger that us. We will just utilise that and make ourselves stronger and better for next year, I think in fairness if we look at our team we would openly admit we are nowhere near ready to go and compete in the First Division and we will look to address it during the summer and look to go and win it next year – and get ourselves over that finishing line and be better prepared for it. The main thing today is to concentrate on Cowdenbeath and well done to them.

Allan Maitland - Team Manager