Reaction

Victory against East Fife on Saturday was just the start “The Wasps” needed to the second quarter of the season having picked up only nine points in the first quarter. Once again the players showed great character to come back and win the game after going behind, just like they had to do in their last home victory over Forfar Athletic.

The visitors took the lead after only 8 minutes when Kyle Wilkie scored his first goal of the season. However PJ Crossan, equalised for “The Wasps” after East Fife keeper Mark Hurst fumbled the ball and PJ pounced to score his first goal for Alloa since coming on loan from Celtic earlier this season. Alloa took the lead on half-time when Steven Hetherington’s free kick from out on the touchline evaded everyone and nested in the corner of the net.

Captain Andy Graham extended “The Wasps” lead on the hour mark to make it 3-1 and with sixteen left Iain Flannigan fired home a free kick into the poatage stamp corner of the net to make sure there was no comeback from Darren Young’s side who the previous week had scored 3 goals in last ten minutes to win 5-4. Another pleasing aspect of “The Wasps” victory on Saturday was the fact it was four different players who scored for Jim Goodwin’s side.

jim after win over east fife

Over the moon I thought it was a terrific performance, to go a goal down again was disappointing but great character, I know that is one thing which has never been questioned, I know we haven’t picked up the results that has been required in the first quarter but commitment and effort was not things which I could question the lads. I see the work they put in on a Tuesday and Thursday night at training and I was just delighted we were able to go and show our home fans in particular because they have obviously not been happy, I believe, so delighted they could go and put on a good performance and I think that was the most pleasing thing. We spoke about it during the week – about not being anxious and not been tense and uptight, I think we set up a very attacking formation to go and play the way we think the game should be played. It would be very easy to go defensive and play 4 – 5 – 1 today but we didn’t we went and took the game to East Fife and I thought we got our just rewards.

We had to make changes due to injuries, Jon Robertson had to drop back to right back, Scott Taggart had to go in at left centre half and I thought he had “A Cigar out all day” , they are just good players and you can ask them to play anywhere and they will do a job for you, but I thought they were exceptional, if a couple of my centre halves decide to drag themselves of the treatment table this week they will probably struggle to get back to be honest with you, why would change that?

That was exactly what we had been asking for weeks, we looked solid, I felt in weeks gone by we looked vulnerable  when we were attacking in particular when we were very open, but we spoke about that and worked hard during the week, it is the most comfortable I have felt for a number of weeks, even going a goal down I didn’t feel like we wouldn’t get our way back into the game. The first goal in particular for me to get us back level, if you watched the build up to the goal a lot of people just remember the finish but if you look at where the goal starts from, it started from Neil Parry who rolled it to the centre half and there were 8 or 9 passes before the goal was scored , try and find me a better goal than that this weekend!

PJ Crossan was rewarded with his first goal for the club, the wee mans did great he has worked hard he has worked his socks off he has given us a different dimension to the team he gives us that bit of pace in behind he is a terrific young talent with great potential, Celtic were kind enough to loan him to us, I have a good relationship with some of the guys there Chris McCart, Tommy McIntyre and they understand the type of football we try and play, they understand the demands I put on the boys at training during the week and they knew by allowing him to come here we wouldn’t allow his standards to drop he is a terrific kid and gives you his all just really pleased that he been on the winning side this week because we have struggled in weeks gone by.

We have had our bad spell and that’s it done now, I said to the lads during the week at the end of every quarter and I’m sure I’m not the only manager who does it, we sit down and analyze the first quarter and we looked at the goals for and goals against and our points return wasn’t good enough, just delighted we were able to get 3 points towards our second quarter target and if we play like that more often we will be absolutely fine, I’m certainly not looking over my shoulder, we are a very positive group and we believe there is still more to come and we have our eyes set for competing at the top end of the table there is a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season so people shouldn’t get to carried away.