Reaction

It looked as though “The Wasps” tactics had worked at Easter Road in the first half, looking to break when given the opportunity and soaking up the Hibernian possession and frustrating their players, manager and supporters, until Liam Henderson gave them the lead a minute before the break when he knocked home after David Crawford had parried top scorer Jason Cummings shot from, what looked like an offside position. Indeed it was “The Wasps” who had the first chances in the game when Grame Holmes and Connor McManus both had opportunities to silence the home crowd. The second goal only four minutes into the second half was the killer, having defended so well in the first half, the defence and David Crawford would be disappointed Jason Cummings shot went under the Alloa keeper into the net. Michael Chopra was playing a lonely game up front himself, it was difficult for the Alloa players at times to break forward such was the Hibernian pressure. Twenty minutes into the second half John McGinn scored Hibs third goal after ghosting into the box. Iain Flannigan returned to the Alloa squad and might have scored a consolation goal late in the match but just failed at the back post.

DANNY LENNON AT EASTER ROAD

Easter Road is a difficult place to come, we certainly knew that, the resources that Hibernian have, there is a massive gulf between ourselves in terms their stadium, their budget they have, it is difficult. We were absolutely delighted in the first half in terms of the way our game plan was going for us – “The operation went well, but the patient died, as they say”. It was frustrating to lose the goal just prior to half time and just having seen it there again, it was offside, so that again makes it even more difficult to take, I would certainly like to have seen the difference that would have made at half time as the Hibernian fans were certainly starting to get frustrated and I certainly believe if they hadn’t scored when they did with the fortune they got, it would have been a different cheer they would have been getting walking off the pitch which would have given us more confidence. However going back out and losing the second goal as soon as we did was hugely disappointing as we had defended well in open play in the first 45 minutes, that was huge for us, but as I’m sitting here and saying that we can take nothing away from Hibernian they deserved their victory but we have to be honest enough and say – with the gulf in the size of the clubs and with us coming and making ourselves difficult to beat, which was the best option for us, staying in that game at 0-0 and trying to keep ourselves in it as we as long as we could, for as long as we could, I think it would have been interesting, especially if we had managed to put a bit flair on near the end if they had been holding on to a 1-0 score line.

A lot of positives to take once again from our point of view, I think when you are asking your team to play in that manner it takes a lot of discipline, and concentration when you are not seing a lot of possession but also saying that that when we did have possession, our best spell was very early in the match, but when we did win a lot of possession we were still in that defensive transition and didn’t really break out. The little time we have with the players we can see the quality at training on a Tuesday and Thursday evening but coming here and it is the responsibility of myself and the coaching staff to know what ability these players have and continue to fill them with the belief to come and play on platforms and stadiums like this, this is what we signed up for and that’s what you put all the hours into as a kid to come and play at grounds like Easter Road. It is important that when you get that opportunity you don’t let it by pass you and be brave in and out of possession but take nothing away from Hibernian they were fantastic – they passed the ball well, played very simple and very quickly but they also when they lost possession they hunted in packs and you have to give them credit for that.

I said to our players in the dressing room the local derby against Falkirk next Saturday will be a great game to be involved in, Falkirk coming back to win 3-2 today, but all the games are coming thick and fast, we now have Hibernian and Rangers fixtures in the past and we need to learn from those games, good and bad things we did, coming up now is games where there is not the same gulf in a Falkirk v. Alloa game as there might be in a Hibernian v. Alloa game, so we will continue to take the positives, learn from the negatives and look to improve on some of these next week, the last few weeks we have played in patches and today I didn’t think we done that.