Alloa triumphed over a bright Montrose team with two first half goals from ‘Sena’ and King.

Alloa were looking to bounce back from a 2-1 defeat on Tuesday against Airdrieonians. Sammon was a catalyst for the half hour fightback in that game and he rightfully started up front. Church came in at left back and Robertson slotted back into his natural CM position for Kevin Cawley. Scougall was another notable absentee, but his partner is just about to give birth so probably a wise decision not to travel.

Alloa started in very disjointed fashion with a loud claim for a penalty denied by referee Alan Newlands. It was one that was almost certainly a foul as Robertson clattered through the back of Blair Lyons. Still, Newlands wouldn’t have long to wait to award a penalty, even more galling when this time, Lyons rounded Hutton, knocked the ball too wide and clipped his own heels to win the spot kick. Up stepped Lewis Milne to the spot to deliver an effort wide of Hutton’s post, both bereft of power and placement, and probably covered anyway by the Alloa goalkeeper guessing the correct way.

The Wasps almost suckered today’s hosts when Niang and Sammon won the ball high up the park but spurned their opportunity to take a clear shot with Niang blocked as he checked back into the cul-de-sac of defenders. Montrose continued to look the more likely to score until the 26th minute when Whatley was robbed by the marauding Niang and the midfielder drilled it low to Allan Fleming’s left side and into the net.

Craig Brown was the next to line up an opportunity as Craig Johnston neatly laid off inside the 18 yard box. The story of Montrose’s day seemed to be the lack of finishing ability as their interplay well merited a goal.

Again, the visitors proved more adept going forward as Henderson drove to the corner flag, Dillon could only clear as far as Niang, who played himself into space with a neat one-two with Henderson before squaring to King and winning an Alloa advantage. King, though, in inspired fashion blazed an effort into the top corner leaving Montrose stunned and Alloa comfortable despite a trying half.

In the second period the Wasps defended the lead well and indeed looked to increase their lead. Hutton’s penalty box was only catching practice for the remainder of the half, except for a late Andrew Steeves effort which would have found the bottom corner if not for the cushioned glove of the Alloa goalkeeper while Fleming in the Montrose goal denied Henderson from close range, was almost lobbed from deep by King and had an effort from Cawley cleared off the line by one of his defenders after both he and Steven Boyd had rounded the Gable Endies stopper.

Alloa’s first away win in the league lifts them to within 3 points of leaders Queen’s Park, although the same can be said for almost the whole league with 3 points between 7th placed Falkirk and the summit.

After a pleasing performance and result against Falkirk on Saturday, Alloa stuttered to a uninspiring defeat in Airdrie. The first 45 minutes of the game at the Excelsior Stadium was a languid affair with Alloa having plenty of the ball but proving powerless to penetrate a packed Diamonds defence. After a couple of early snapshots went wide the home side took the lead from Alloa’s slackness. Niang who was a hero against Falkirk turned villain as he gave the ball away cheaply, Airdrie counter-attacked and the whipped cross found the head of Gallagher who had drifted off the back of Fernandy Mendy. While Hutton managed to stand up to the opening effort it would only ricochet back to the Airdrie striker to finish left-footed high into the net. Despite the deficit, Alloa were struggling to inject some tempo into the game and despite, their at times, neat interplay Currie in the Airdrie goal was rarely called into action.

As the second half started things became even worse for the Wasps as Adam Frizzell curled an outside of the right-boot effort around Hutton from 25 yards. Boyd almost sparked a reply as his quick feet beat two Airdrie defenders and subsequently won a corner. Durnan was unmarked around 6 yards, sending it past the goallie only to be cleared from the line.

Quick reactions from the visiting bench as on came Church and Sammon for Cawley and Niang. Sammon had an instant impact. Holding the ball up and running in the pocket, he one-two’d with Scougall and then opened his body up to swerve around Max Currie and find the bottom corner. It makes it two goals in two substitute appearances for Sammon after his effort to secure the Falkirk win on Saturday. Things could have been even better for the big Irishman as Taggart whipped in an effort and he could only head directly at the Airdrie keeper. Momentum swung towards Alloa, but despite the flow of play towards the Airdrie goal, they could not find that decisive equaliser and as the Airdrie players broke up the games’ momentum, it meandered towards a home victory and an Alloa disappointment.

Alloa overcame their close neighbours in what was ultimately a routine home win for the Wasps. Alloa handed a debut to new Hearts loanee Euan Henderson, while Scougall made way after feeling unwell before the game, in the only forced change, from the side that started last week’s win over Cowdenbeath.

Alloa had the best of the opportunities as Boyd broke through and Trouten bounced a diving header wide. They would grab the breakthrough as Taggart lobbed a curling ball over everyone for the run of Henderson who eventually prodded home with a slow roll of the ball past Mutch. Alarm bells were ringing for Alan Trouten who was instantly removed from the field of play after receiving some treatment on his errant hamstring. Cammy O’Donnell joining the play in sad circumstances.

While the Wasps goalkeeper was active, only one curling effort required a serious save in the first half. Alloa were dealt another serious blow when red hot Boyd felt unfit to continue on 40 minutes. Former Bairn Conor Sammon replaced him. O’Donnell unleashed a volley from 30 yards that narrowly missed Mutch’s woodwork and passed up a glorious cutback where he could only find the Falkirk goalkeeper.

Falkirk threatened early, twice in the second half but again it was the Wasps who were superior. A deep free kick aimed to Durnan, was nodded across goal for Sammon to seal the three points. Alloa closed out the game almost flawlessly, with only one hairy moment as Ompreon was denied an exquisite finish by Hutton’s fingertips and the resulting corner was saved by a goal line clearance from King.

Alloa reverted to the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 with Mendy and King dropping out of the starting XI to make way for the stalwarts of Robertson and Cawley.

It was the home side who created the tantalising chances in the early minutes, Boyd would rue an early opening shot as he chested down Robertson’s cross, and unmarked could only smash it at Muir in the centre of the Queen’s Park goal. Mouhamed ‘Sena’ Niang also had a driven effort fly wide. Sammon charging through was almost brutally smashed by an errant knee, Wullie Muir lucky to escape with just a yellow after a nasty challenge on the Irishman and Kevin Cawley would meet another Robertson cross with a header straight at the Spider’s keeper.

The major deciding factor of the first half was the quickfire double yellow of Craig Howie, after being second to a 50/50 and inflicting a fair amount of pain on him and his opposite number he was shown a yellow and 16 minutes later would receive a second yellow after a naive sliding challenge missed ball and caught man. It was a galling decision from an Alloa viewpoint especially as Queen’s Park skipper and former Alloa legend Michael Doyle had escaped a similar mistimed tackle on Sammon minutes earlier.

But as the first half wore on Queen’s were held to only long range efforts on Hutton’s goal.

The second half saw Alloa soaking up the pressure in what can accurately be described as two banks, a 4-5 formation, with the introduction of King for Cawley. But again somehow the hosts were the ones challenging on goal as Sammon curled on his weak foot into the arms of Muir and Boyd couldn’t quite run himself into a shooting position as Muir was again forced to come collect the ball at the Alloa forward’s feet.

But just as the Queen’s Park lack of imagination was showing, Doyle whipped in a ball to the 6 yard box, Hutton gets caught in no man’s land, and neither Robertson or Graham can stop Simon Murray nodding in for the opener from the visitors.

Credit to the Barry Ferguson who immediately saw the need to open things up again, O’Donnell and Mendy coming on for Taggart and Sammon, and the system changed to a much brighter 3-1-4-1. The Wasps kept finding openings and Queen’s Park were forced to bite at the heels of Boyd and Scougall which only stirred the hornet’s nest at the Indodrill as the 10 men began to make it a stretched end to end tie.

With Sena being brought down a hairs-breadth outwith the box, up stepped Boyd to deliver a free-kick off the bar twice and over the line but the equaliser hadn’t put paid to the breathless end to the game. Queen’s Park managed to smack the bar after Murray’s effort was barely deflected off course and Boyd was blocked smartly up the other end after another dazzling solo run. Both title hopefuls left with a hard-fought point.

Barry Ferguson, Alloa Athletic Manager

“One thing the boys showed today was character, that’s the most important thing.”

It’s a bitter defeat as Alloa come back from Broadwood with nought.

The first half was a fairly benign affair with neither side testing the opposing goalkeeper seriously, but Alloa showed the most signs of life with a few dangerous attacks broken up at crucial moments.

In the second half Alloa had switched from their unorthodox 3-4-3 and slotted into a more familiar 4-2-3-1 after Boyd was heavily muted in his wing back role in the first half. But it would be Clyde who made the opening breakthrough. A long ball to Goodwillie was met clumsily by Mendy, Alloa were slow to pressure the knockdown so Clyde switched play from left to right to Cunningham. His delivery saw Goodwillie finally win the running battle between him and Mendy, rising highest to drive a header past the flailing Hutton.

Alloa would respond to this set-back as Robertson, O’Donnell and Armour replaced Mendy, King and Boyd. New signing from Partick Thistle Mo ‘Sena’ Niang zipped a ball into Sammon. The frontman layed off neatly for Scougall and on his left foot, he smashed the ball low toward goal. Mitchell’s hands were not enough to divert the effort and it crashed off the post and in to drag the Wasps back into the game.

From there the game was almost a procession toward the Clyde goal but Alloa would time and time again fail to find the killer touch and the winning goal.

In the 89th minute, after absorbing a load of Alloa pressure, Goodwillie struck against an isolated Andy Graham, rolling the ball up the byline and smashing the roof of the net as he charged toward the 6 yard box. A special goal to give Clyde their first win in the league this season but bitter for the Wasps who only had themselves to blame.

Barry Ferguson, Alloa Manager

First half, we never played well at all. Second half, again, we started really poorly.

Had to change the formation, make a number of changes and then we get the goal and we’re on the front foot. Then, if you’re not going to win the game, you’ve got to see the game out. To lose a goal in the last couple of minutes is not good enough.

If you’re not going to be consistently performing you’re not going to be in the team

It’s a worry, with a similar team. You’ve seen the performance [against East Fife], how they played. Then to go from that level back down; it was basically the same sort of performance as Peterhead. It’s a concern, I need to sort that as quickly as possible and I will sort that as quickly as possible. If you’re not going to be consistently performing you’re not going to be in the team, that’s the most important thing.

As I said, you can’t go from being so dominant last week to not laying a finger on Clyde until we make the formation change. There’s no excuses about the formation, last week it worked really well. We worked on it again and then obviously have to go and change it by bringing a central midfielder on to left back [and] a young player out wide.

I’m not going to beat about the bush, it’s not good enough