It was the Hibernian supporters who were wishing the full time whistle as “The Wasps” who were missing six first team players pushed for an equaliser but it just wasn’t to be on this occasion. Hibs are a much improved side from the team which played at Recreation Park in August, they had a lot of possession but on the day lacked a cutting edge. Alloa took the lead and Hibernian keeper Mark Oxley will not want to see the goal again, Daryll Meggatt’s 30 yard shot was on target but looked to be heading straight for the keeper until he let it slip through his legs, 1 -0. The wasps then had a great chance to go 2 – 0 ahead when Ryan McCord sent Kevin Cawley clear through on goals, but unfortunately his shot was wide and a great chance lost. Hibs came back scored from a free kick after Mark Docherty was penalised for hand ball and David Gray put the visitors in front with a looping header. After the interval “The Wasps” pushed for an equaliser but the Hibernian defence stood resolute. Three minutes from the end of the game Hibernian striker Dominique Malonga was given a straight red card after aiming a kick at Ben Gordon.

barry smith after cup exit at hibs

We put a lot into the game and I don’t think we deserved to get beat, Hibs had a lot of possession and played well I thought but so did our boys, we have to remember that we have a lot of injuries at the moment and we had young kids on the bench and to put up a performance like that against a full time side like Hibs,  I think the boys can take a little bit of credit, were not happy at getting beat without a doubt but there is a lot of positives to take from that game. Kevin Cawley had a great chance to make it 2 – 0, he got himself into that position to score and we know if we had taken that chance it would have been 2 – 0 and a totally different game, these things happen but we will not get on to him for not taking the chance but he get into a good position and it would have been a different game had it gone 2 – 0 and taken that chance. We will now look to taken the momentum of that game into Wednesday night’s game against Rangers, what we have to remember we are going into a midweek game with a depleted squad, against Rangers, it’s a semi-final which all the players will want to play in, but it’s not easy  we are a part time club and these guys will be working on Wednesday before they come to a semi final which I’m not sure that is quite correct because some of them might never have the chance to play in another semi final in their career, so that part and parcel but we cannot get away from the fact this performance will hold them in good stead. We had six first team players missing today and at best, maximum one, will be available for the squad on Wednesday night. It was difficult to change things today, we had young kids on the bench, that are untried at this level of football, so we are limited as to what we could do to influence the game but I don’t think with the players I had today, I could ask them for more, because we created chances in both halves of the game, we defended well, I don’t want to take anything away from Hibs because they had a lot of good possession and a lot of good wee passing moves, but our boys put their bodies on the line, throwing bodies in front of things to make sure any shots at goal were either deflected wide or blocking them, so we have to say we defended well, but I don’t want to take away from Hibs because I thought they played well today.

“The Wasps” produced a four star display to defeat Ayr United 4-0 in the William Hill Scottish Cup 3rd Round replay at Indodrill Stadium, Alloa. Barry Smith’s team started the game at a high tempo, ex Ayr United player, Jonathan Tiffoney was unfortunate not to open the scoring as early as the 5th minute when his long range effort came crashing off the cross bar. The deadlock was broken in the 24th minute when another ex Ayr United player, Liam Buchanan, scored his sixth goal in the past seven games. Daryll Meggatt headed in number two before Mark Docherty made it 3-0 within the space of eight minutes.

Tiffoney then had a great chance to increase the lead as the home team pushed for more goals. Ayr United manager Mark Roberts made three chances for the start of the second half to try and halt the scoring. Mark Docherty scored his second goal of the evening just after the hour mark curling an effort in at the far post. This now sets up a busy period for “The Wasps” – Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday followed by four home games – 22nd Nov v. Falkirk (H), 29th Nov v. Hibernian (H) 3rd Dec v. Rangers (H) & 6th Dec v. Dumbarton (H).

barry smith after defeating ayr united

It was a good professional performance, I thought we kept the ball very well and scored at the right times. It was good to get the first goal but even before that we had hit the bar and the post, we certainly had chances even before we took the lead. Another clean sheet was important but the team overall is working hard all over the park to make sure that we were in the right areas. The players will take the confidence from the Livingston game, from the defensive display, where we dug in and defended well and scoring goals tonight gives us the other side of confidence going into any game. The players don’t like conceding goals and Jason Marr’s block at the end typifies our determination to keep a clean sheet and credit to the players for going for the whole ninety plus minutes of the game to prevent Ayr United from scoring. We have now earned ourselves another home tie and that’s all you can ask for in the Scottish Cup – but it will be another difficult tie against Hibernian, but we will look forward to it when it comes around. Although we defeated Hibernian earlier in the season they were still finding their feet, but they will still know it will not be an easy place to come and we will make sure it is difficult for Hibernian.

Alloa Athletic were looking to reach the Quarter finals of the Scottish Cup for the first time since season 1988/89, but found Dumbarton difficult to break down in a game which was settled by a single goal by ex Wasp Colin Nish just after the half hour. Dumbarton had a great chance to extend their lead when they were awarded a penalty but Chris Kane’s spot kick was saved by Scott Bain, however the goalkeeper picked up an ankle knock and had to be replaced at half time by Craig McDowall. Both teams had chances to score in the second half, Kevin Cawley, Eddie Ferns & Ryan McCord could have levelled for “The Wasps” but the equaliser was not to come and Alloa Athletic missed a great chance to reach the last eight, where winners Dumbarton were drawn away to Aberdeen in the next round.

barry smith after cup defeat

We are obviously disappointed to have went out of the cup, but now we can fully concentrate on the league, the cup is always a bonus but our priority has always been the league. I don’t think there was much in the game, I think we could have been a bit more clinical in front of goal, we had a couple of chances in the second half and Andy Kirk had a good effort in the first half, so we had chances in the game but there are things to be positive with. Eddie Ferns did very well when he came on he was that we bit added bite up front which is what we were looking for and his pace was obviously a threat. I have great belief in the strikers we have at the club, they are good players, but unfortunately at the moment they are not putting the ball in the back of the net, but strikers go through spells like that and hopefully soon they will turn the corner. Scott Bain had to go off injured at half-time the extent of his injury we will not know until tomorrow, how serious the injury is to his foot. Next week we will look forward to our game against Livingston, there is a lot to work with in the dressing room.

This was the cup tie the fans had wanted, renewing a rivalry with local neighbours Stirling Albion, indeed it was the visitors who opened brightest and their top scorer Jordan White rose to head them in front. Ten minutes later their young 18 year old forward Sandy Cunningham kicked out at Michael Doyle and was shown a straight red card, this changed the flow of the game with Alloa now having much more of the ball. However it was five minutes into the second half before “The Wasps” would draw level, ex Wasp Kieran McAnespie bringing down Jonathan Tiffoney in the box and Ryan McCord coolly scored past another ex Wasp in goal David Crawford. Eight minutes later Graeme Holmes rose majestically to head Paul Hartley’s team in front. David Crawford then was busy somehow keeping his goal intact, he pulling off a brilliant save to deny Kevin Cawley. In the final minute of the game Jason Marr fired home to make the tie look safe at 3-1 but substitute Graham Weir in time added on fired home the goal of the game from 25 yards, 3-2, a good old fashioned cup tie with “The Wasps” going through to the next round and last 16 of the cup.

paul hartley after cup tie

It is good to be in the next round, we didn’t start the game particularly well, we gave them to many free kicks which lead to the opening goal, the sending off changed the game with us having much more of the ball but we weren’t at our best today but we showed real character in the second half to come through and win the game. Playing again ten men is never easy but our decision making has got to be better in terms of when we get the ball, what do we do with it, we were too slack at times, there were players who had an off day but what they did show was tremendous character and a will to win, I told them at half-time they would need to improve if not they would be out of the cup – and we wanted to be in that draw on Monday, so we are in the next round and I look forward to see who we will get. Not quite sure what we are wishing for this time, a big tie but hopefully another home draw and with some of the teams which are left in the draw we might get another tie which would favour us and who knows from there

“The Wasps” progressed to the next round of this season’s William Hill Scottish Cup after defeating Highland League side Inverurie Loco Works at Recreation Park, Alloa today 3 – 0. Alloa started this game as favourites due to their SPFL standing, however Inverurie Loco’s had nothing to lose and in the first half of the game gave as good as they got. The match changed in the second half after manager Paul Hartley introduced Eddie Harty to be more direct and use his pace to get behind the visitors rearguard. This made the home side a far more dangerous proposition to Loco’s and after Kevin Cawley had put “The Wasps” ahead, the team never looked back and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners, pleased to be in the Fourth Round draw which takes place on Tuesday.

hartley after cup victory

That was a tough game for us today, I thought in the first half we were poor in terms of our intensity of play, our build up was far to pedestrian, that’s why I changed it at half-time. I brought Eddie Ferns on to bring a bit of pace to the game who would be a threat in behind their defence.  In terms of going through to the next round, brilliant, another clean sheet which I was pleased with, but in terms of how we played and kept the ball, I’m not happy. Eddie coming on at half-time changed the game, that is why we brought him on, to try and get in behind them because they were playing a high line and we kept on being caught offside, but his pace was a threat and he put in some good cross balls – so pleased with that. The goals were good, Kevin Cawley’s goal was a good finish, and pleased for Alex Salmon getting his first goal for the club, but the most pleasing thing was to get through the tie because I was worried about this tie today, I have been stressing that all week, it was really worrying as a manager because it is one of these ones which is a potential banana skin and you don’t want to be hitting the headlines the next day by going out the cup to Highland League opposition and that’s no disrespect to Inverurie Loco’s, they were good, they played some good stuff, they gave us a game today in which they gave us a fright. But again I say the main thing is we are in the draw for the next round of the tournament when the draw is made for the fourth round on Tuesday and we will look forward to that now. We want a big club, one of the big boys, that’s why you are in football – you want it for the players and the club, so we don’t mind who we get. Young Lewis Wilson had been doing well in the reserves, so he deserved his start today, he did well, why not throw him in, how are you going to see how young players react without giving them a chance, you don’t need to wait until a player is 20 or 21, Lewis is 17, and we wanted to see if he could handle the occasion and he did well.

This was a game which was picked out after the cup draw as the tie of the round and it didn’t disappoint. in a four goal thriller both managers felt they might have won the game but in the end a 2-2 draw means they will need to do it all over again next Saturday at Galabank. The Wasps took the lead through top scorer Kevin Cawley after only 16 minutes but could not get that 2nd goal. Then two goals either side of half-time turned the tie on it’s head before substitute Stevie Masterton scored a terrific equaliser.

paul hartley after cup draw

Players were terrific in the second half especially the last half hour, I thought we then got well on top – it was a good cup game, we just couldn’t get that third goal. So that means we will need to travel down to Galabank next Saturday and look to get a good result.
Great to see Stevie Masterton get his goal, we sign him during the week until the end of the year, he has good qualities but has just not played a lot of games recently so we are trying to build on his fitness, building it back up, he scored a good goal today which shows you the quality he has got when he gets near the box so I was pleased with that goal to get us level again after going 2 – 1 behind, the team showed great character. We had made a good start when Kevin Cawley put us ahead but then allowed Annan to come right back into the game with two goals either side of half-time.
People were calling this the tie of the round and I thought it lived up to that with the game ending 2-2 and both teams showing what they are capable of, we kept going for the full 90 minutes and thought we might have got something just at the end. Our fitness levels are great and your attitude was terrific again.
We knew when the draw was made it was going to be a hard game and that’s how it turned out, there is not much between the sides, so next Saturday we will now go to Annan knowing that the game will be decided on the day and we will need to be at our best to make sure we can progress in this season’s Scottish Cup.

harry cairney – annan athletic manager

We hadn’t done enough to win the game at 2-1 and we knew Alloa would put us under pressure, they brought on big Armand who is a handful for anybody. Certainly disappointed at the way we lost our goals – one ball through the middle beats us for the first goal and Kevin Neilson who is 15 stone and six foot five is beaten by a 9 stone, five foot four guy in Kevin Cawley, I was not happy about that and for the second goal we never cleared our lines and it was a fair strike from the boy Masterton , but we should have done better before that. Although the replay is back at Galabank we cannot take anything for granted – because we came here and got a draw, Alloa are a very dangerous side and like most games in the Third Division, the team who does best on the day tends to win the game and it still will be a tough game next Saturday.