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A late goal from the returning Scott Hynd, gave “The Wasps” a share of the points in a game, especially in the first half they were not at their best. Manager jim Goodwin made two changes from Saturday’s side who had faced Queen of the South – Iain Flannigan returned to the side after a back injury, while captain Graeme Holmes replaced Player/Manager Jim Goodwin who would watch this game from the bench.

East Fife belied their second bottom position in the league and although their team could only list 4 substitutes their starting eleven was very attack minded. Kevin Cawley had an early effort which narrowly past the far post, but East Fife looked far more dangerous. In the 30th minute they took the lead after a slip by Jason Marr allowed Kevin Smith a clear run in on goal and he scored his 8th goal of the season. Jason Marr had an effort blocked just prior to half time and Grame Holmes nearly found Greig Spence at the back post but a last minute tackle cleared the danger. Alloa were glad to hear the half-time whistle and might have been further behind.

Alloa had another scare at the start of the 2nd half when East Fife had the ball in the net only for the referee to disallow the goal for the cross having drifted out of play. Certainly “The Wasps” showed more urgency in the 2nd half and Jamie Longworth was rewarded for his persistancey when he pounced on a defensive mix up to equalise. At this stage for the first time in the game “The Wasps” had the acendancy and looked likey to get the winner.

Kevin Cawley was unfortunate to see his effort come back off the post with keeper Ryan Goodfellow beaten. A mix up in midfield saw Jason Marr’s forward pass strike Graeme Holmes and break kindly for East Fife, who broke on the break Jamie Insall’s cross was knocked into his own goal by defender Scott Taggart.

In the last fifteen minutes Alloa pushed forward and brought on substitutes Jordan Kirkpatrick and latterly Scott Hynd as they pushed for an equaliser.

With only two minutes remaining Iain Flannigan’s corner was headed home at the back post by substitute Scott Hynd who had only recently returned to the club after a loan spell with Montrose. It was a pulsating second half with both teams believing they could have won all three points, but in the end a share of the points was probably the correct result.

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jim goodwin after draw at east fife

To be honest with you I thought we were shocking in the first half, we were nowhere near the standards that we expect and we have set for each other. I just thought we never started the game at all, doing all the basics; winning the first headers, picking up the second balls, it was just a very disappointing first half. We spoke at half time and discussed how we were going to get ourselves back into the game and I thought the second half was much better. We showed great character to get back into the game and got it back to one each, I thought then that we were in the ascendancy and looked as if we were the team who were going to get the next goal.

It was a stupid mistake really, which gave East Fife the lead again, a sloppy ball into the middle of the pitch unnecessarily and in fairness they broke on it very quickly, it was a decent ball in from Jamie Insall, Scott Taggart does not know where he is, I think if he leaves it then probably it goes bye  the post but in fairness to him it is a difficult one, he is not sure if there is somebody behind him there to tap it in so that was us now 2-1 behind.

The character of the boys, the kind of lads that they are, the group that we have they dig deep again, it is very easy to throw the towel in at that point because you get yourself back in the game and then you think it is away from you again, but we made a couple of positive changes. I was delighted for Scott Hynd who comes on, he was terrific I just asked him to buzz around and be in the right place at the right time and he done that for us and we managed to come away with the point. I am sure Gary Naysmith will be disappointed because in the first half they could have had us out of sight and we were delighted to go in one nil down at half time.

 Overall, I think there was lots of positives to be taken from the second half, lots of character, a never say die attitude it is a difficult place to come and I think there will be a number of teams that will struggle here, I believe East Fife are better than what their league position suggests at the moment and I don’t think they will be hanging around the bottom too long, so we won’t be the only team to come up here trying to win and struggle.