Season: 2009-10

Clyde v Alloa Athletic

Alloa continued in their push for promotion with a hard earned 2-0 victory over a Clyde side who seemed to be playing without any pressure and enjoying much of the ball. However in the end, Alloa’s twin strike force of Stuart Noble and Bryan Prunty were to prove their worth to “The Wasps” with each scoring when the opportunites fell for them, Stuart Noble opening the scoring, against the run of play in the first half and Bryan Prunty scoring the crucial second goal five minutes from the end.

 

allan maitland after victory over clyde

First and foremost you have to say Clyde played with a freedom and expression and passed the ball excellently, really really well, certainly in the first half in particular they were easily the better side, we scored well against the run of play and you can see the reason why they are where they are in the league because the created three great chances and missed the lot of them, the one at the back post when the guy slipped it past the post, the one at the penalty spot when the player got knocked down, these should be goals everyday of the week but then when you look at Bryan Prunty, you look at Stuart Noble there lies the difference, we had three chances in the entire game – the keeper made a great save at the first one, and the other two are great finishes, Prunty’s first touch for the second goal when he headers it across the defender and gets himself one on one with the goalkeeper was magnificent and gave himself the option to go round the keeper or just toe poke it under him, that was the significant difference but all credit needs to go to Clyde tonight, we are what we are – we are a very hard team to defeat which has been borne out with the number of shutouts we have had this season and Davie Crawford has been a big part of that but tonight I thought the guys who did really well for us were Chris Townsley who was immense and Declan McAvoy at left back who did really well for us especially in the second half he dug in against Jordan White who was going to beat him most times in the air but certainly did enough to force him under pressure and made sure on his one opportunity he headed over the bar. We are getting to a stage where we are very close to the end of the season and this team have a chance of achieving something and their desire to do it at the moment is greater than their ability they are showing on the park but they have been fantastic this season and they are determined not to let anything slip, we always say we are hard to beat and with Bryan Prunty and Stuart Noble on the park then we have every chance of winning games. For what it is worth I thought the two centre midfield players of Clyde were excellent, Connor Stevenson and the Latvian boy were spraying the ball about all night, part of that problem for us was Scot Buist was struggling with injury, had to play due to Scott Walker being suspended, so the back four were too deep, created a big space in the middle which made it really difficult for Mark Brown and John Grant or Bomber get close to them and that allowed them to play, full credit to them they played really well and I think 2-0 was a little harsh. But at the moment our need is probably greater than their’s. We picked up three injuries tonight in Scot Buist, David McClune and Andy Scott, Scot Buist looks like being a no for Saturday, David McClune has a possibility. We gave Gary Carroll a rest for most of tonight and Scott Walker will again be available for Saturday, but there is no doubt on Saturday we will need to play better than we did tonight but the same result would be very welcome.
0 - 2
Full Time

East Fife v Alloa Athletic

A Declan McAvoy goal at Methil on Saturday against East Fife earned “The Wasps” full points in a game when the first goal was going to be so important. The players once again showed great fighting spirit against an East Fife side who had defeated promotion hopefuls Brechin City 2-0 in midweek. East Fife had the best of the first 45 minutes, but Alloa were a better side in the second half, in a game which had few clear cut chances. Declan McAvoy scored his first goal for the club starting the move in his own half before playing a one two and getting forward into the East Fife box and having a shot which took a deflection past home keeper Michael Brown. This gave Alloa more confidence and Stuart Noble might have increased Alloa’s lead shortly after the goal but his pass inside to Prunty was intercepted. David Crawford had to be at his best and Jonathon Smart might still be wondering how DC got down to save at his post late on the game to deny East Fife a share of the points. However with five games left we are still doing our best to secure promotion to the First Division although nothing has been achieved as yet.

 

allan maitland at methil

Today was an absolutely massive result for us and I am thrilled for the players, I thought our problems had been well documented, players injured and everything else. Today I had Stuart Noble, Chris Townsley and Bryan Prunty coming back which as I said before a bit earlier than they should do, but they are determined to play their part and with so many players out suspended today and this being such a vital game they all wanted to play and contributed to what I thought was a tremendous battling display, there is no doubt at times we were riding our luck and we got a fortunate break at the goal, David Crawford our goal keeper had a fantastic save in the first half and an absolute top drawer save in the second half from Jonathan Smart with a header low down at his corner but I think that is Davie Crawford’s 18th shut-out this season and that goes a long way to helping you win things, our centre backs today I thought were immense and it had to be a day when you work at it and work at it and make yourself difficult to beat, and with Stuart Noble and Bryan Prunty on the park we know we were always capable of scoring goals. Young Declan got his goal which is a bonus for him and a bonus for us but I felt we could win the game if we just made sure we were tight at the back and that’s what happened. On Wednesday night we will see John Grant, Mark Brown and Andy Scott all coming back from suspension, we will have Bryan Prunty , Chris Townsley and Stuart Noble in better shape, Dougie Wilson was back in the squad today. We have got five games left, we have got players back, we are in great shape, in great heart and we are going to do our best to see where that takes us. The fans have been fantastic at this club, they have been great and I think they recognise how hard everybody at this club is working, from me, Wardie, Hilly and the players, the back room staff and the board as well have supported me by extending Thomas Flynn’s loan deal, by bringing in Declan and Tony when we were short of numbers. Everybody is doing their part.
0 - 1
Full Time

Arbroath v Alloa Athletic

Gayfield Park in Arbroath in recent times has always been a difficult fixture for “The Wasps”, indeed we have to go back to 2nd October, 2004, before Allan Maitland’s time as manager to recall our last victory at the venue, winning 3-0 thanks to a Stuart Callaghan hat-trick. Once again on Saturday we found the venue and the conditions near impossible to play in. Last season we lost 4-1 and 1-0, so two draws this season looks like an improvement, however in December we managed to throw away a two goal lead, but on Saturday in truth chances on both sides were limited due to the horrendous wind which made ball control near impossible. With six games left we still have a lot of work to do but it is better to be on top than in the chasing pack.

 

allan maitland at gayfield

The trouble sometimes when you come up to Arbroath is the wind ruins the game, today was a classic example, very similar to the game we played here last year when the wind ruined everything, today for us in the first half we had the wind at our backs but we didn’t show enough urgency in the game until the last ten minutes of the first half, in the second half Arbroath had the wind and they put us under a bit more pressure – but neither team could play football in the conditions, the game was ruined by it – they had two good efforts which our goalkeeper saved and we had one when Darren Hill made a save late in the second half. The difference this year is, when you are not playing well you dig in and take what you can from the game and move on to the next fixture and that’s what we have done. It is an improvement on last years game up here in similar conditions when we lost 1-0, we are pleased with a point and move on to next Saturday when we hope the conditions will be a wee bit better, we couldn’t pass the ball, we couldn’t keep the ball and if we can’t do that we can’t win games of football. We had to defend properly which I thought we did really well and we just move on to next game, simple as that – the weather was terrible and the game was terrible!
0 - 0
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Alloa Athletic v Stirling Albion

This was another crucial victory, remarkably the fourth against Stirling Albion this season, which is the first time either side has won all four league encounters in one season, the last time Alloa won all league games in same season was back in season 1986/87 season when Dom Sullivan was the Alloa manager, although the sides at that time only met three times a season. Manager Allan Maitland still had injury worries prior to this match with six first team players unavailable, prompting him to bring in Declan McAvoy from Hamilton Accies on loan till the end of the season. Stirling Albion took an early lead when Andy Graham headed them in front, but Gary Carroll scored with a top class strike four minutes later. Stirling had a lot of possesion in the second half but just as the game looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw, Alloa again showed their fighting spirit to win the game in the final minute. Jason Thomson was unfortunate to see his effort deflected for a corner and Scott Walker was on hand to head his first goal of the season to win the game for “The Wasps”.

allan maitland after stirling albion victory

Last minute goal again, but to be fair I think Stirling Albion were doing that earlier in the season and we were finding it demoralising but it now seems to be our turn , we have had a few really crucial goals, Saturday obviously and again tonight, I do not know if that is a mark of champions or whatever – we had to rely on young boys again and I was saying to them to play a short corner, near the end, a draw would be a good result but great credit to the boys they still pushed for a winner. Scott Walker has waited all season for his first goal and it was fitting he should score the winner tonight. Our effort was fantastic, Stirling had a lot of the ball especially in the second half as we expected, we allowed that but we defended really well, I thought both centre backs were magnificent. One of the most significant times in the game was to score so quickly after losing an early goal, Gary Carroll’s strike was superb – did we deserve to win, we certainly didn’t deserve to lose which is probably a better way of putting it, but the spirit at the club is fantastic, the players have been fantastic and you don’t score late goals at football matches as often as we have my chance. Jason Thomson made a great run, Jamie Hay was really brave to knock the ball on and Jason was a bit unlucky, we got the corner kick and Scott walker scored, I could not be more proud of the players at the moment, they have given everything that they have got and David mcClune, Mark Brown, Scot Buist and Andy Scott tonight could easily have said “Gaffer I can’t play tonight” but they were all out there desperate to play football for this club. Tony Stevenson was taking free kicks in our half because none of none of the other players could be trusted to strike the ball that long without fear of more hamstring problems, Bryan Prunty had to come off but the young boys who came on again never let anyone down. I think it is a crucial result for us, we had six first team regulars still missing tonight and our destiny is in our own hands but slowly and surely we are beginning to take it out of other peoples hands and if we win our home games we will not be far away , we have difficult away games coming up in our next three games against Arbroath, East Fife & Clyde and after that we will finish with three home games and one away game, but if we can keep working hard in our next three games away from home we will not be far away. To take 10 points out of 12 in our last three games giving the injury situation, if I had my full team out in these games and collected 10 points out of 12 I would still have still have thought that was an unbelievable effort, it speaks volumes for the players.
2 - 1
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Alloa Athletic v Stenhousemuir

The game turned out to be the type of game everybody would have expected tonight, two teams who have been playing a lot of football recently, both sitting at the top of the league, the game means a lot and I felt the whole game was really tense. Not much in the game , we scored which was a well worked goal, it looked like the home keeper thought the shot was going past the post and never moved, but certainly it was a good goal from Alloa’s point of view Bomber did well, he got a good lay off from Bryan Prunty and took his chance well. It was similar to two efforts Cowdenbeath had in the first half, but both went wide. Neither goalkeeper had much to do, it was a really hard battle with both teams very committed and it was a mistake near the end from our goalkeeper David Crawford who has made very little mistakes this season, made a mistake at their goal by dropping the ball and John Dempster was on hand to put away the loose ball. Andy Scott then made things worse by getting sent off, he was complaining to the linesman that the throw in was an Alloa throw in which led to the goal, the linesman looked confused so the referee gave the throw to them, they fire the ball into the box and score and although it was a mistake that is what Andy Scott was upset about, however I cannot afford to have players sent off and that is now another problem for us when we are currently missing so many players, that was not the only incident the players felt the decision had went against them, but it was a hard battle, a point is probably a fair result , two teams very committed with not a lot of football on show and in the end a draw was a fair result.

 

 

allan maitland after stenny victory

There’s not much doubt that Stenhousemuir were the better side today, I thought they played really well – we had so many injuries and with Andy Scott suspended and John Grant’s girl friend going into labour last night, so he wasn’t able to play either and that all seemed to catch up with us today because we hardly strung two or three passes together but this team has got a magnificent spirit – I don’t think we created a chance in the 88 minutes, their goalkeepers not had a save to make, Chris unfortunately for them made a mistake in the closing minutes which is so unlike him and David Gormley did what good strikers do, and Bryan Prunty’s finish for the winner was absolutely magnificent, but as a result it is really difficult for them it’s a hard result for them they deserve so much more, from our point of view it’s an absolutely vital victory I’ve said before if you win your home games you won’t be far away but I thought I had seen everything at football with last weeks game at Stirling and then this weeks game when we were really not playing well to win these two games has been incredible so it’s a great victory for us but we are under no illusions the team looks as though it’s really suffered with the injuries and everything else and I think that I am asking boys out there to do a mans job and it’s really difficult for them but great credit to them all, particularly Jason who I thought done really well when he came on and helped set up the first goal but we will need to play better than that if we are hoping to go on and win this league. Andy Scott will be available for Tuesday night, David McClune is getting closer – I have already pushed players when they are not quite ready but I have got to be aware of the fact that we have a game on Saturday again, once we get past Saturday we have a break of a week and at the moment we look as though we really need that. We are asking people to do things that can be unfair – effort and spirit is magnificent what we lack some times on the day we make up with these traits. As I said already it’s a difficult day for Stenhousemuir who had a great chance to go 2-0 up and that would have killed the game but Bryan Prunty and David Gormley were brought to this club to score goals and we need them. And whether that’s a last minute against Arbroath or last minute today Bryan Prunty’s goals are going to be absolutely vital for us – he has been magnificent. We need to get through Tuesday nights game and then Saturday’s game and the break of a week will be very welcome.
2 - 1
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Cowdenbeath v Alloa Athletic

In a game of very few chances it took two goals in the second half, both from goalkeeping errors, in a game which was very nervy and tense. Although both teams occupy the top two spots in the league, on this performance neither did themselves justice, and there was little free flowing football on view. Brown Ferguson put Alloa in front after 53 minutes, firing past a static home keeper. The game was never free flowing with too many stops and niggly fouls, Cowdenbeath did equalise with only six minutes remaining. David Crawford spilled a header, uncharacteristically and John Dempster scored the equaliser. Andy Scott was then sent off after the linesman alerted the referee, about coments made by Scott to the linesman after the goal. In the closing minute Cowdenbeath had a chance to snatch all the points but McGregor’s effort was deflected to safety. Prior to the match Alloa manager signed Tony Stevenson on loan from Hamilton Accies until the end of this season on an emergency loan deal.

 

allan maitland after cowdenbeath draw

The game turned out to be the type of game everybody would have expected tonight, two teams who have been playing a lot of football recently, both sitting at the top of the league, the game means a lot and I felt the whole game was really tense. Not much in the game , we scored which was a well worked goal, it looked like the home keeper thought the shot was going past the post and never moved, but certainly it was a good goal from Alloa’s point of view Bomber did well, he got a good lay off from Bryan Prunty and took his chance well. It was similar to two efforts Cowdenbeath had in the first half, but both went wide. Neither goalkeeper had much to do, it was a really hard battle with both teams very committed and it was a mistake near the end from our goalkeeper David Crawford who has made very little mistakes this season, made a mistake at their goal by dropping the ball and John Dempster was on hand to put away the loose ball. Andy Scott then made things worse by getting sent off, he was complaining to the linesman that the throw in was an Alloa throw in which led to the goal, the linesman looked confused so the referee gave the throw to them, they fire the ball into the box and score and although it was a mistake that is what Andy Scott was upset about, however I cannot afford to have players sent off and that is now another problem for us when we are currently missing so many players, that was not the only incident the players felt the decision had went against them, but it was a hard battle, a point is probably a fair result , two teams very committed with not a lot of football on show and in the end a draw was a fair result.
1 - 1
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Stirling Albion v Alloa Athletic

No one could have wrote the script for this match against Stirling Albion, “The Wasps” winning against all the odds against their local rivals in a match where they had to draft in a “trialist” centre back such was the limit to the players before the game and then to lose another three players during the first half – this was a massive result for the club and showed the spirit and will to win in the Alloa squad. Manager Allan Maitland was looking for a positive result after the disappointment of Tuesday night’s result against Dumbarton but was aware better than anybody, just who was available. Danny Main played in the centre of the defence as a trialist from Bo’ness United and was imense, as was every player who wore an Alloa Athletic shirt at Forthbank Stadium. Mark Gilhaney had to be replaced after only 16 minutes by Jamie Hay, then top scorer Stuart Noble had to go off after 25 minutes with David Gormley taking his place, four minutes later David Gormley scored a wonderful goal to put Alloa ahead. At half-time David McClune couldn’t play on and Ross Philp replaced McClune. Stirling Albion at this stage knew Alloa had a weakened side and pushed hard for the equaliser but twenty mintes from time Jamie Hay sent over an inch perfect pass and Bryan Prunty nipped in to make it 2-0, with Stirling then pushing more forward Prunty again caught out the home defence to double his tally and make it 3-0, there was no way back and Alloa won for the second time at Forthbank this season.

 

allan maitland after stirling albion

Today we had no Scott Walker, Chris Townsley or Scot Buist, Andy Scott then failed a late fitness test, no Kevin Welsh, then when we played the first half we lost David McClune, Stuart Noble, Mark Gilhaney, we are eight players down and 1-0 up, you think you are going to have to dig in and hang on to the game, however the back four and John Grant in the middle of the park did magnificently well at that bit, and then to score another two goals and win the game 3-0 speaks volumes for where we are in terms of team spirit and obviously recovering from Tuesday night was so important but it is difficult for Stirling Albion they are in a situation themselves where they have not been winning and are desperate to win and they are 1-0 down and they can see we have got a weakened team on the park and they are throwing bodies forward so there is always a chance they might get caught on the break. The first goal is obviously important for us David Gormley who had a really difficult night on Tuesday night at Dumbarton where nothing went right for him comes on the park and within 5 minutes scores a magnificent goal for us and that is really the thing that helped us enormously, even though you have all these other set backs it give you something to hang on to and one thing our team can do this season is hang on and dig in and they know they have a great goal keeper behind them who had a great save I think at 1-0. There was two good penalty claims in there which one of them might have been a penalty, I’m not quite sure I thought the second one it looked as though Tiff maybe knocked the ball out of the park but the first one looked like a penalty, equally on Tuesday night there was a penalty given against us that was never a penalty so I dare say these things balance themselves out. Mark Brown , was magnificent as I said already and we just had a day when we probably looked like the team that wanted it more than they did and that’s my opinion. With Bryan Prunty on the park you always have a chance because he will score us goals, his goals have been invaluable already but him and David Gormley were both at Ayr United and we signed the two of them hoping they would be able to link up but they’ve not managed that at all so far but today for the first time that happened the two of them have scored goals and it’s a wonderful result for us – I mean a wonderful result – one at half time that I’m sure nobody here could have seen coming, but as I said the spirit in the camp is magnificent, we will need to count the bodies for Tuesday nights game at Cowdenbeath but at the moment we will enjoy this one and I’m sure the game a week on Tuesday against Stirling will be an eventful one, hopefully with the same result. I feel for Stirling Albion because they played well during the game but we caught them in the counter attack and that has happened to them a lot this year, not scoring goals and losing Martin Grehan and Bryan Prunty has been a big blow to them but its came at our benefit.
0 - 3
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Dumbarton v Alloa Athletic

Alloa lost their unbeaten league record tonight against Dumbarton having gone 12 games unbeaten back to 14th November, 2009. Manager Allan Maitland made changes to the side from Saturday, Mark McCafferty replaced Kevin Welsh at left back, david gormley was given his first start and Mark Gilhaney was back in the starting eleven – leaving SPL Phenominal Player of the Month Stuart Noble on the bench, along with Andy Scott and John Grant. Dumbarton started the games brightest and Ben Gordon headed them into the lead aftet only 17 minutes. jan Vojacek made a great stop from a Brown Ferguson shot but Alloa were happy to go in at half-time at one down. Two minutes into the second half Dumbarton were awarded a free kick just outside the box and Alan Cook thundered home the increase the home sides lead, then nine minutes later Scott walker was deemed to have given away a penalty just inside the box and worse was to follow when referee Colin Brown gave him a second yellow card on the evening and sent him off, ex Wasp Ross Clark made no mistake from the spot. Allan Maitland then introduced Stuart Noble, John Grant and Andy Scott and soon Alloa began to play more like league leaders. Stuart Noble snatched a goal back only 5 minutes after coming on but “The Wasps” could not get a second goal while they were on top to put pressure on the home side who were looking to play out time.

 

allan maitland after dumbarton defeat

Dumbarton were better than us for the majority of the game, certainly the first half they came out and started much brighter than us, we obviously had changes to our team, we had players delayed in traffic on the M8 so we had to make changes to the team and maybe that didn’t help us, we were certainly slower than them out of the blocks. Dumbarton deserved to be ahead at half-time and we were possibly fortunate it was only 1-0 at that stage, at half-time we tried to reorganise and sort things out. I thought the free kick for the second goal looks harsh, giving a handball when the player was standing only a yard away from the kicker, we didn’t get a penalty kick – a simple situation with handball in their box , but these things happen and then of course we lose a penalty kick and a sending off, which didn’t help us. The players which ended up on the park showed great effort, great commitment but if you only start playing after an hour, you will find yourself beaten and that is exactly what happened, we were second best and now we have a really difficult game at Stirling on Saturday, for our point of view we need to pick ourselves up, we also managed to have Scott Walker injured and suspended after his red card, Chris Townsley injured, Andy Scott injured and a general feeling on the night of a grievance we never got things our way, I don’t mean I think we deserved to get things our way but most 50/50’s didn’t go our way, however the referee didn’t lose us the game we lost it ourselves, you have to give credit to the opposition, at home Dumbarton have been excellent they were good the first game of the season and they were good tonight and deserved to beat us. Scott Walker is an honest lad and he said at the penalty “I played the ball at the same time as their boy played it and the referee didn’t just give the penalty but chose to send me off?” Even if he had caught the boy I didn’t see the incident as a sending off, it was not a last man situation, the player wasn’t going to run through and score the ball was going away from the two players so I didn’t see that and the referee deemed that it was a sending off along with a penalty. The better team won on the night and we can only blame ourselves for that, we were second to every ball. The three subs livened the game up when they came on and although Stuart Noble pulled a goal back for us we couldn’t get that second goal in the spell when even down to ten players we were on top and causing their defence to panic.
3 - 1
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Alloa Athletic v Clyde

This was a game that had everything, played more like a cup tie with Clyde showing just how well they can play, with the players they have brought in on loan. Clyde played well and were certainly up for the game, it seemed strange that we had to wait until the 35th minute of the game to get a goal when Andy Scott scored slightly against the run of play after good work from Mark Gilhaney. Two minutes later Clyde equalised when the home defence were static and Jordan White’s header just creeped over David Crawford to equalise. Allan Maitland brought on Mark Brown at half time and this helped, however there was nothing to stop John Stewart’s strike on 50 minutes to put the visitors in front. This made Alloa sit up and they fought back strongly and were unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty kick. David Gormley stuck the post and later the bar and Clyde were then awarded a penalty after a breakaway. John Stewart’s attempt went high and wide, however referee Bobby Madden asked the kick to be retaken and this time David Crawford pulled off a wonderful penalty save. Callum Reidford in the visitors goal was pulling off some wonderful saves to deny “The Wasps” who laid seige to the Clyde goal. Sawyers then had a run on goal after going past Kevin Welsh but the chance went for nothing. Then David McClune playing his 100th first team appearance for the club struck a wonder volley into the top right hand corner the salvage a point in a game packed with incidents. Alloa were not at their best, but were only allowed to play as well as Clyde allowed at times, however Alloa’s strengh from the bench and never say die attitude and great spirit always had the team believing they could take something from the game. As we now enter the last third of the season this could still prove to be a very vital point against a team who belied their league position.

 

allan maitland after clyde game

We knew today we were going to face a Clyde side which would be far different from the one which their league position shows, and they were excellent today. They were the better side for the majority of the game, I think we had a 25 minute spell in the second half when we pinned them back but even during that spell they still created chances. They went behind, probably against the run of play, our goalkeeper had great saves to keep us in the first half and we found ourselves in a situation where we never found the pace of the game, sometimes you look at games and you think – Clyde are bottom of the league and we are at home and it will be an easy game and I was trying to stress this before the game, but today we were not playing the Clyde team who are bottom of the league, that team has vanished after the new players who have recently joined the club, they have brought good players in and showed how good they can be with a tremendous second goal today to go 2-1 ahead, if they had scored the penalty they might have secured the game and even when Willie Sawyers had a late chance as well but equally we hit the bar, hit the post, their keeper had at least two magnificent saves in the game and it took an absolute wonder goal for us from David McClune to maintain our unbeaten run, even although we didn’t play well and I am disappointed with a lot of aspects in the game, I was not disappointed with our attitude, we kept fighting till the end and it was probably a very exciting game to watch if you were a neutral, two open teams both trying to win the game and there were two fantastic goals in the game as well today, but if Clyde play like that they will not be far away and will drag themselves back up the league, for our point of view, we will need to improve if we want to win anything this season, our goalkeeper was outstanding today and was named Man of the match, which shows how much we had to do to get a point today. We were frustrated we didn’t get a penalty ourselves and again when the lineman asked for the Clyde penalty to be retaken, but that’s football you just have to get on with it.
2 - 2
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Alloa Athletic v Peterhead

Victory over Neale Cooper’s Peterhead at Recreation Park on Saturday, kept “The Wasps” good run going, even although some media stations managed to get the scoreline wrong, after Andy Scott had deservedly scored the winner with eleven minutes left. In the first half Alloa played some of their best football of the season and although Stuart Noble opened the scoring in 29 minutes, “The Wasps” should have made their first half dominance pay with more goals. peterhead showed how dangerous a team they can be when, Nicky Clark equalised on 34 minutes. However substitute Paul Emslie received a straight red card only seven minutes after replacing Neil McVitie, which did not help Peterhead. This victory puts the Wasps eight points ahead of the chasing pack, a position which leaves others clubs with games in hand but they now must win to catch Allan Maitland’s team.

 

allan maitland after peterhead victory

I thought we played really well today, particularly in the first half, we are not finding any nerves because we are at the top of the table, at the moment what I find is that we are thriving on it – we struggled against Arbroath and we scored a late goal and that gave us a huge lift and since then we have played really well, our football in the first half was fantastic we scored a magnificent goal – it was a really good finish by Stuart Noble , great pass by Bryan Prunty he hits it that early their goalkeeper didn’t get time to react. In the second half I felt the goal was coming, Bryan Prunty had a great chance, Andy Scott had a chance and obviously John Grant had the chance which he just put over the bar. In fairness to Peterhead, down to ten men, I think the sending off was the right decision, they still came here and tried to play, I thought Nicky Clark played really well for them and their one chance they had in the whole game they scored with. The second goal was vital for us – Stuart Noble won the man of the match and I can understand that but for me Andy Scott was a really big player for us today he set up chances for us, we were missing them – so he decided to go up the park and score himself. We have that threat now with Mark Gilhaney, Andy Scott, Stuart Noble, Bryan Prunty and David Gormley – so we have goals in our team. I couldn’t be more pleased, I felt today we played really well – everybody talks about the advantage we have because we have played our games but you need to win them. We have the same games as everyone else for the rest of the month – in effect we have four Tuesdays to play in March but in April we won’t have the games to catch up with. We have a good squad here – Kevin Welsh and Marc McCafferty should both be available for Tuesday night – they both had a virus today. Scot Buist had to come off at half time with an injury and is likely to miss Tuesday but we are in good shape going into a hard run of games and I am absolutely delighted. We felt pressure when we were playing Arbroath at home and didn’t manage to score until the closing seconds of the game, that was a different type of pressure for Alloa as people were starting to expect the team to win games. I don’t feel that pressure now because the team believe in themselves and that we will score goals – if we loose a goal we know we are capable of going and scoring another goal and that has made the difference. The gap is now growing and the pressure is on everybody else now – that’s exactly how I would like it to be.
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