Reaction

Hearts showed on Saturday night why they are so far ahead in the SPFL Championship this season, they were excellent, but giving them two goals of a start was not helpful on the evening. Indeed at 1-0 “The Wasps” were extremely unlucky when ex Hearts player, Stephen Simmons shot came back off the post to safety when on another day it would have went in or fell to an Alloa player, but it was not to be. Having not started well, Barry Smith’s side battled to get back into the game and the introduction of the two new signings, Isaac Layne and Calaum Jahraldo-Martin certainly lifted the home fans and sparked pace and threat into the Alloa side. When Greig Spence headed in his 12th goal of the season to reduce the deficit to 2-1 the momentum moved to the home side. However five minutes later the game was over when Stephen Simmons misplaced a back pass and Jamie Walker killed the game. We move on to Tuesday nights rearranged fixture against Livingston with the knowledge that it is another huge game and one it is hoped our new signing can adapt quickly to the Scottish game and help the team pick up important league points.

barry smith after hearts game

Hearts are a good team, but when we pulled it back to 2-1 we felt we were maybe on the ascendancy but then a mistake cost us and Hearts went 3-1 ahead and I felt the game petered out after that. You cannot take away from the fact Hearts are a good team and we cannot afford to be giving them a two goal lead at the start of the game. From our point of view the goals we lost were avoidable, no pressure on the first one, the second one I think we can defend better, the third goal was a bad pass and the fourth one was a free header at a corner – we think they are avoidable but in general Hearts were better than us today, I think that’s the basic fact. At 1-0 we hit the post and on another day it either goes in the net or it falls to the other side of the post where Greig Spence could have knocked it in but the way our luck is the now it bounces off the post and goes to the other side of the goal to their defender, on another day that could have been 1-1. We also thought we had a claim for a penalty with Stephen Simmons in the box, I’m pretty sure it was a penalty, but we don’t get these decisions. I think the two lads who we brought on gave us a spark, the whole team worked hard, we wanted to bring players in to give more competition for places and hopefully that pushes us on. We now move on to the rearranged game against Livingston on Tuesday night, which will be another huge game for the club, it will be another though game, so Tuesday will be no different, we will prepare the same and have the players in for training on Monday night.