Season: 2008-09
 
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Alloa Athletic v Raith Rovers
allan maitland after raith game
I am pleased with one point, I thought in the first half we were very poor, fortunate to score our goal which the keeper appeared to loose in the sun, we got our break, then lost a poor goal when Chris Townsley defended it very poorly which was systematic of the first half. In the second half I thought we played much better we got our energy levels up a bit, Kyle MacAulay and Jamie Stevenson came into the game and obviously it was a boost when Dougie Wilson came on late in the second half. Iain Campbell has had a difficult week due to the death and funeral of his uncle and Raymond Jellema should not even have been playing as he has been ill this week – he wanted to come off at half time but I couldn’t let him come off – he did really well for us today. Our effort was great, our application was good even if some of our football was not that good but we got better as the game went on. In the second half I thought we merited a point. In the first half I thought Raith Rovers were excellent, they were first to the ball and caused a lot of problems but in the second half I thought we were better.
Can I just say one last thing, obviously I have got a problem with Dougie Hill getting booked at the end of the game in the incident with Mark Campbell – when Mark Campbell sticks the head in your nose and bursts your nose, I accept the referee didn’t see it, but that’s all very well adopting an aggressive attitude but somebody should be seeing it, there’s three officials there and I have got a very aggrieved player who has ended up with a yellow card and a broken nose somewhere in there that’s not right.
john mcglynn – raith manager
I thought we played particularly well in the first half, Alloa scored against the run of play, but we kept playing, it was a set back for us but we scored an excellent goal in quick reply and we had other opportunities in the first half and thought we should have went in at half time in front because we played particularly well. I think we dominated most of the second half, a lot of corner kicks and free kicks but at one each there is always the possibility of Alloa breaking away and maybe scoring but that never really materialised, albeit we were never really were as slick as in the first half. We did have two balls cleared off the line but that is why you position defenders there. We just could not get that goal to win the game which I think we deserved.
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Alloa Athletic v Clyde
allan maitland after clyde game
I thought it was a good game and Clyde played really well with a professional performance, for our point of view we showed a lot more commitment and application but lacked that bit of quality in the last third of the park. Jamie did have a couple of half chances but it was a good game, Clyde were the better team and won. Great effort by ourselves but just not good enough. I thought the second goal was a cheap goal to loose because we had a free kick at the other end of the park we made nothing of it, they quickly got a free kick, played a great ball into the box and well attacked, we just didn’t do the same with ours. Maybe we tired in the second half but I thought it was a good competitive game and it was probably the right result.
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Alloa Athletic v Ayr United
manager after ayr united game
I think it is quite simple at 45 minutes Ayr United were miles better than us, they were first to every ball scored two good goals and I thought we should have defended them better but it was two good goals from their point of view and I said in my programme notes that they had two good strikers and that is what proved to be. We were second best to everything in the first half but in the second half I though we played much better but it is easier to play better when you are two goals down and the other team are sitting in and I think that is what happened, Ayr United took their foot of the pedal a bit and having got ourselves into good positions we should have done better, I think the chances we missed were at the very worst as easy as the ones scored by Ayr United so it has been a bad day but at least we showed a bit of effort in the second half and we now need to get ourselves re-grouped and re-organised for Tuesday nights game against Clyde. We need to do much better than we have managed so far – we’ve now played four games and haven’t scored a first half goal which tells me we are not starting games sharp enough and I think that sums it up quite well. We are not defending properly – we played Dundee here and won 2-1 and the victory was built on the fact we defended well. Today we did not defend well, we lost two first half goals and it could have been more because we didn’t get tight to people we have not got close enough in the middle of the park allowing them to pick their passes that did not happen against Dundee but it’s happened now some players are feeling sorry for themselves and if they are not careful they will not need to feel sorry for themselves because they will not be playing if they don’t improve. After the game the players were having a go at each other and they were obviously disappointed and they do not need me to have a go at them but I did mention to them that we need to start the game better and defend better but we will get better. On the injury front, Chris Townsley took a knock so I will need to see how he is for Tuesday. I was pleased Iain Campbell played after his recent bereavement but we will need to see how his knee held up. Brown Ferguson and Dougie Wilson may be another couple of week yet and the same applies to Andy Ferguson, David McClune is hard to assess at this stage but he will be at least another two weeks.
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Alloa Athletic v Elgin City
“The Wasps” edged their way into the second round of this season’s Co-operative Insurance Cup after Robbie Williamson’s Third Divison side Elgin City had competed for long spells in the game. Alloa still seemed to be suffering from their opening day defeat in the league at Arbroath, but as always the opening goal was always going to be crucial. Indeed Francis Kelly was unfortunate not to give Alloa the lead in the opening minutes after his 25 yard strike rebounded off the cross bar. Elgin City gave a good account of themselves but found Raymond Jellema in good form when called upon. Substitute Andy Scott broke the deadlock in 71 minutes after being set up by Kyle MacAulay. Alloa we relieved to get in front and thereafter settled and started to play football. Francis Kelly scored Alloa’s second goal his first goal for the first team. Alloa now progress to the second round of the tournament with the 2nd round ties due to be played on Tuesday 26th August, 2008.
allan maitland after elgin city
I think tonight’s game is indicative of a team that got beat 4-1 on Saturday and it took us probably 65 minutes before we even started playing football, it looked as though we had a hangover from Saturday – hopefully we got that out of our system in the last 25 minutes when we actually started passing the ball and looking a bit better. I think great credit has to go to Elgin City who came here and played better than us for long spells especially in the first half and were a bit unlucky not to be ahead at half time. We are relieved to be through and delighted to be through and so far this season we are a good cup team and poor league team, although we will look to change that on Saturday as I said it was a decent exercise and we are relieved to be through.
robbie williamson – elgin city
Obviously disappointed to get knocked out but I though we competed very well for long parts of the game, when they brought the subs on and it changed the shape of the game a bit and the boy Stevenson caused us a lot of problems up front. I thought we battled and made a good game of it – we tried to get the ball down like Alloa and tried to play football. Unfortunately, we just can’t seem to get a goal at the moment, their keeper had a couple of good saves, especially the one just before half time but credit to Alloa they upped it after they went in front with 20 minutes to go and in the end were deserved winners.
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Arbroath v Alloa Athletic
Alloa manager Allan Maitland could not hide his disappointment at the teams opening day defeat at Gayfield against newly promoted Arbroath. This was a day when Alloa fans must have been wondering which side turned up after defeating First Division Dundee last Saturday in the Alba Challenge Cup. The Wasps started brightly and had an early chance from Jamie Stevenson which was diverted over the bar before the defence was caught flat footed and Alan Rattray gave the visitors an early lead, from then on Arbroath imposed themselves all over the park and showed they were fired up for this match. Alloa themselves had a lot of the ball but Arbroath always looked dangerous and it was a day when they took their chances and punished an Alloa side who will want to start the season again, its back to basics on Tuesday against Elgin City.
allan maitland after season opener at gayfield
Quite simple today, I think we were beaten by a team that showed more desire, hunger, more application than our team did, we have been excellent up until now in pre season and maybe some people had an inclination that they are able to turn up at places like Arbroath and play football and win the game and get back in the bus and go down the road and before you know it you are 2-0 down against a team with a desire and hunger, which was blatantly missing from our game from the start, I thought we had a great opportunity early in the game when Jamie put it over the bar, it got blocked and went over the bar, but defensively we were an absolute shambles which has been so unusual
in everything we have done in pre season and in the game against Dundee last week, we lost Iain Campbell today, but even allowing for that we have enough good players at this club to deal with these things. I think we have good players at the club who didn’t play anywhere near as well as we should have done today, second to most balls especially in the middle of the park, didn’t hold the ball up as strikers, defenders who didn’t attack the ball properly allowing them to get clear efforts on goal throughout the game not just the first half, all of that is just a recipe for one thing and that’s a defeat, a few year ago we lost heavily, very heavily to Cowdenbeath and that’s still there, it’s still in my mind and I keep reminding people of that, that chat will now be replaced by our first day at Arbroath which has been a shambles for us. We have a game against Elgin City on Tuesday night which I would have liked to utilise part of the squad for and see what other players are capable of doing but now after today we need to face Tuesday nights game as a game getting back to basics and see if we can go and play again, based on what I have seen today we are not right, we should be miles better than that and once we lose a goal, which we did last year, we have people trying to win the game all on their own and we don’t do the simple things correctly, we are not helping each other on the park, not working hard enough and if we don’t do that we are going to get beat, I’ve no qualms and that’s no disrespect to Arbroath, they were excellent and deserved their win, they took their goals well, and they could have possibly had more, I can think of a free header at the back post, the one Jellie tipped over the bar, so they were good today, they obviously had a desire to make amends for last weeks defeat and I know which game I would rather have won and it certainly wasn’t last Saturday. I think if I was any other manager in our league that thought we were going to do well, I would be picking up the paper and thinking Alloa are maybe not as good after all!
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Alloa Athletic v Dundee
Alloa manager Allan Maitland tried to play down his side’s victory over First Division side Dundee in this season’s Challenge Cup. The Wasps deservedly winning the game 2-1 with, two headers from captain Chris Townsley and Jamie Stevenson who has returned to the club on loan from Greenock Morton and was instrumental in both goals. Dundee had their chances but found the Alloa defence in top form, Raymond Jellema once again showing the reason why he is so important to the team and the fact he could play at a higher level. In the Second round of the tournament Alloa Athletic have been drawn at home against Clyde, the tie is likely to be played on Tuesday 12th August, 2008.
allan maitland after dundee challenge cup victory
Interesting game, I thought it was a game we were fortunate to win, Dundee played really well, in long spells, especially in the first half, during that time what I was saying to the players is it was really important for us to give ourselves a chance by defending properly but what I did not expect was to see players defending at the top of their game so early in the season, getting to half time level was a great boost for us. We had some near scares Iain Campbell blocking one on the line, Raymond Jellema making two great saves and in the second half you could count four of five occasions where we threw bodies to block efforts and that gives you a chance. We were decent at set pieces and that was to prove the difference in the game, for the first goal Jamie threw over a great ball into the box and Chris Townsley finished it and after that we looked a lot happier, we were getting plenty of touches on the ball and Dundee had to chase the game and threw bodies forward and at that stage I thought we might score a second goal. Delighted we did obviously, and we needed the second goal to win the game, due to a wee slip at the end which takes the shine of it. On a different day Dundee could easily have won it , for us we are under no illusions, this is a boost for us, it was a cup tie, which means we already have shown progress, cause we played three cup ties last season and lost the three of them, so that is an improvement. Loads of really good performances for us, especially in the back line where goalkeeper and back four were immense, and it was good to see Jamie return to the club with a goal, I’ve no complaints about anything. I think Dundee will consider themselves slightly unfortunate and I think that’s fair but for our point of view it has been a great day. I t gets us ready for the beginning of the league campaign and I’m sure next week at Arbroath it will be a completely different game from today.
alex rae – dundee manager
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