Starks Park

Raith Rovers v Alloa Athletic

Football can be a very unforgiving sport and in the new SPFL Championship, Alloa Athletic know they will need to take their chances as they strive to consolate their position this season in a higher division. This was a very open, hard fought game which turned in the home sides favour after Alloa striker Andy Kirk, missed a great opportunity with 16 minutes of the game remaining which would have put “The Wasps” back in front at a stage in the game when they were looking the more likely side to go on and win the points. There will be no easy games in this league and Raith Rovers will have known they were in a game, but the players once again could not be faulted for effort and will need to pick themselves up for the visit next Saturday of league leaders Hamilton Accies to Recreation Park.

 

paul hartley at starks park

Andy Kirk’s chance is a big moment in the game and it looks easier to score but there is nothing you can say about it. The lad was distraught about it in the dressing room after the game – he knows he should score – but that’s the way it goes sometimes. You go through your career and that is what life is like for a striker. You miss chances your a villain but if you score you’re a hero. Andy has been in the game long enough to know that but he is still very disappointed and I am not going to criticise him. I think the game turned on that moment a wee bit and gives Raith a lift. We done well to get back into things at various points throughout the match. I thought it was a really good game of football. We came here, tried to have a go and were positive. We score a really good first goal and they come back into it and get their goal when we fail to stop the cross. I am disappointed with that because we had worked on it all week to deal with Cardle when he comes inside to keep him in his left foot but he got inside and puts in a good ball which evades everyone and goes straight in. We then started the second half sloppy and then we fought back again and get our rewards with the penalty. We were on the ascendency when they got their goal and then they hit us on the break when we are trying to chase the game. It comes down to stopping crosses again so we have to go away now and analyse the goals that we conceded and see what we can do better. With their fourth goal, we got caught out trying to go for it – yes we must do better –  but I have no regrets because we’ve got to have a go and that’s the way that we play. Every one game is a tough one in this division and obviously Hamilton next up will be no different. We have to just keep at it, we have a squad of players and that’s what we have to work with and I cannot fault them for their effort or attitude. We maybe just have to be a little bit more street wise at times. Calum Elliot is a good player and we knew he would be a handful in the game having had him in our squad last year. We know his qualities – he holds the ball up well and brings other players into the game – he scores a terrific goal from his point of view but for us it is poor defensively. On the other hand there is loads of positives to take into the next game. We have come to a tough venue, scored two goals and we try and play the right way. We have created loads of chances so we will try to keep that going next week.
4 - 2
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Raith Rovers v Alloa Athletic

Yesterday was another day which has been typical of Alloa Athletic’s season this term, going into the game Raith Rovers were huge favourites and in the past John McGlynn has been always maintained Alloa never open up at Starks Park. Yesterday was to be different, Alloa went and looked to take the game to the home side, giving themselves every chance of at least taking a point. In the opening minute Marvin Andrews, who could easily have been named man of the match, flattened Any Scott and this set the tone for the first half in which we had five bookings and one red card. Alloa nearly took the lead in bizarre fashion went Dougie Wilson’s shot bounced in front and over the home keeper, only for him to scoop it back off the line. There seemed no danger to the visitors when a long ball was played towards the front, left of the box, but keeper Jellema and defender both hesitated and Campbell then played a ball across the front of the box straight to Kevin Smith, a gift out of nothing. Twelve minutes later Raith Rovers were reduced to ten men when Stephen Simmons caught Dougie Wilson late and he was red carded, having already having received a previous booking for foul on Pat Scullion. Dougie Wilson had to spend the evening in hospital in Kirkcaldy, where it was discovered he had a double fracture to his ankle, which will keep him out for the rest of the season. Alloa battled back and in the second half Brown Ferguson scored with a free kick after Andy Scott had been fouled. At this stage in the game a confident side would have went on and collected all three points but Alloa’s inability this season to hold on to a game appeared again. Five minutes after Alloa had equalised Marvin Andrews crossed for Kevin Smith to score his second goal of the game. Although Alloa still had numerical advantage it was the home side who looked the more dangerous in front of goal and in the final minute Alloa were again caught on the break and Graham Weir sent a chip over the head of keeper Jellema who was caught in no mans land off his line. The scoreline was cruel on Alloa but again they had not been able to finish out a game in which they could easily have collected at least a point. Next week the team travel to Methil to face East Fife in another game which is now crucial the team pick up points.

 

allan maitland after raith game

Every Saturday at the moment we are finding new ways to lose games, we found a way at Brechin where we played a game for 90 minutes, when concentrations levels were good and out of the blue we threw away a goal and then today, for the first goal again, a long ball, a nothing ball, our defender can’t deal with it and decides not only that he can’t deal with it but he will probably make it a little bit easier for them by squaring it and allowing them to tap it into an empty net, so that puts all your plans out the window. We’ve got a plan in force, I know John McGlynn believes when we come to Starks Park we park a bus in front of the goal, but we didn’t do that today. We came here today with a middle four, ahead of Scot Buist to go and attack and try and squeeze the game and at the beginning of the game I thought that was working really well for us. I think to be fair to the referee there wasn’t much in the bookings he could do anything about, I don’t think he had much choice in the sending off – the players were making it difficult for the referee. When Raith Rovers went down to ten men we worked really hard, done the right things, stretched the game as much as possible, scored what I thought was a good goal, but a poor goal for Raith Rovers and then inexplicably allowed them to have encouragement and I have to give them credit I thought their work rate and in the way they played in the second half was fantastic with ten men but they didn’t need any encouragement, this is Raith Rovers who are fighting to win the league, but we gave them encouragement by giving them cheap corner kicks and then allowing them to cross balls into our box when they should have been shut down quicker. The third goal was just a kick up the park – we couldn’t deal with. We are where we are because we are incapable of dealing with defending properly for 90 minutes. We are very much aware of the fact that we are in a relegation struggle now and a relegation fight, I have been saying that for weeks and weeks despite how well we play at times we still manage to lose games – today was a game having got back to one each a point was the minimum we should have expected from the game, instead of kicking on and taking encouragement from the goal, what we did is we stood off Raith Rovers and allowed them to come to us. They deserved their win, I thought they were better than us despite going down to ten men and we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
3 - 1
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Raith Rovers v Alloa Athletic

“The Wasps” held Raith Rovers to a 0-0 draw in today’s Homecoming Scottish Cup 3rd round tie at Stark’s Park. Having lost 4-1 at the start of the month at the same ground manager Allan Maitland started the game with three centre backs in an effort to be defensively sound. This restricted Raith Rovers to very little goalmouths efforts, with Alloa having a strong bench, from which they could bring on players to win the game in the final quarter of the match. Two minutes into the second half Pat Scullion was dismissed for his second yellow card, restricting Alloa’s opportunities. We now can look forward to a replay, pencilled in for a week on Tuesday, 9th December at Recreation Park. The draw for the 4th round of this season’s Homecoming Scottish Cup takes place at Hampden Park on Monday and Alloa Athletic are very pleased still to be involved.

 

allan maitland after starks draw

First and foremost we are delighted to be in the draw for the next round , we would obviously have liked to win the game but it was always going to be a difficult game for us today. I thought Raith Rovers would play a high tempo game and on the back of that we decided to start with three centre backs and that was working really well, then Dougie Hill got injured and we had to change it, but our commitment and effort was excellent and it restricted Raith Rovers to only one chance in the first half, in the second half the early sending off didn’t help us, I had no qualms about it, he was a bit unfortunate in the fact he was the only player booked, but he appeared to catch Allan Walker a bit late so the sending off was fine. I thought the referee handed the game really well, so in the second half in was a case of hanging in, but we defended so much better than we have in previous weeks and our goalkeeper when called upon had one fantastic save at the bottom left post, but other that that I thought we restricted Raith Rovers to very few chances throughout the game – we didn’t have any, but a game at home to Raith Rovers is mightily more appealing to me than a game here at Stark’s Park, the replay a week on Tuesday should be an interesting game and obviously we will know by then, who we could play if we can win at Recreation Park. Raith Rovers are a good side, we respect that, we came here with a plan, it worked really well for us for the first 30 minutes that we didn’t lose an early goal, Dougie Hill got injured at a time when we would have changed it to a back four anyway, so that didn’t effect things too much, the sending off was disappointing, but the effort was tremendous, application tremendous and an unusual manner was our concentration which was tremendous and that has not been the case too often this season, we are pleased to be in the draw for the next round.

I anticipate Alloa Athletic will have a real go a week on Tuesday, it will be a completely different game from today, so I would expect us to have a real go at Raith Rovers and try and get at them, which we would have hoped to do late in the game today if we were still in it, but we didn’t get that opportunity. We all know Raith Rovers have a great threat up front with their three strikers, and I think Kevin Smith not playing today was a massive loss for Raith Rovers and a real boost for us I have to say, it will be a hard game a week on Tuesday, but it is one I feel we have a better chance than we did today.
We came with a plan to be defensively a lot better than at the start of the month when we lost 4-1, and the plan is that after an hour you are still in the game, unfortunately within that hour we had a player sent off, so that changes things, so it looks like that we came here for 90 minutes to pack the defence, that wasn’t the plan, the plan is to be defensively strong and ensure you are still in the game in the last 30 minutes and then have a go, on the bench we had Andy Ferguson, Jamie Stevenson, Dougie Wilson and Greig Spence, all attacking players to go on and win the game in the last 30 minutes, we just didn’t have that opportunity, unfortunately.
0 - 0
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Raith Rovers v Alloa Athletic

Andy Scott scored a magnificent goal against Raith Rovers on Saturday at Kirkcaldy, only to be cancelled out a minute later when Fraser Forrest handled the ball, giving the home side the chance to draw level. The Wasps had looked to take something from the game but found Gary Wales, Kevin Smith and Graham Weir in sparkling form. Raith Rovers are a good side and moved to the top of the League after Saturdays 4-1 victory, we must continue to focus on each game and the next three games are all important games which we will look to take something from, no better game to look forward to than a local derby against our closest rivals, Stirling Albion. The players are all fully aware of just how big a game next Saturday’s game is, and are looking forward to the game. Having won our last two home matches we will be looking to keep that going and look forward to building on the confidence of winning at home again.

 

allan maitland after raith rovers defeat

We came up against a very good Raith Rovers side today, the tempo off the game was obviously played at a tempo they wanted, they banged it forward as quickly as they possibly could, they got plenty of support, we didn’t deal with enough of the first balls well enough, I thought their front three caused us problems throughout, but having said that, I thought we started the game well and scored an absolute magnificent goal, but having done that it is really important that we hold the lead for a length of time and the penalty we gave away was inexcusable, there was no need for it, the ball played against his hand when there was nobody within ten yards of him, so that allows Raith Rovers a break which they probably didn’t need at this stage, It was a penalty I have no qualms about it, then they got a break at the second goal, somebody shoots, we block it and it falls straight to Mark Ferry who finishes it fantastically well. They were just sharper and better than us simple as that, on the day they were just better that us, they have a lot of confidence and you can see why they are sitting top of the league, they have loads of good players playing well, the front three caused us problems throughout and I think we contributed to our own downfall – with the penalty kick, we didn’t defend the second goal well enough and you know I’m going to have a go about referee’s – I just feel that when you come to places like Kirkcaldy, it is really important that you manage to stop to momentum of the game coming towards your end of the park all the time and I don’t think that happened because we were going up for headers, the front three who were not going to win the ball at that stage are constantly jumping into you and the ball is never getting cleared from our end of the park, we don’t clear it properly the momentum of the game is constantly at our end of the park, but that is an observation more than anything else. It is difficult for the referee as it is, the crowd are loud, they claim for free kicks, Graham Weir likes to go down for the free kicks, they obviously get them and that causes a problem, but no qualms that the better team won and we have a long way to go before we can reach Raith Rovers standard at the moment. Our start to the season has been so bad that our away form must improve rapidly – we have Stirling Albion at home next week, Stranraer the following week away and Queen’s Park at home the following week and it’s really important for our season that we start to win these games. When we go to Kirkcaldy or even Brechin, you could argue these are games at the moment we are not capable of winning, our confidence isn’t high enough but we have to make sure we get something from these next three games, our away form is horrendous but we need to address that.
4 - 1
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