Reaction

Alloa Athletic manager Paul Hartley was delighted to break his cup record and progress to the next round of this season’s Scottish Communities League Cup, this was after a 2-0 victory for “The Wasps” at a very windy Balmoor Stadium, Peterhead. The last time the sides met in the League Cup in Season 2001/02, the then CIS Cup, Alloa Athletic had won 4-0 at Recreation Park with goals from Ian Little, Harry Curran, Stevie Thomson and Richard Walker, this game was always going to be closer, however “The Wasps” progressed thanks to goals from Ryan McCord and Andy Kirk in the second half, when Alloa had the wind at their backs.

paul hartley after winning 1st cup tie

The main thing was to get through the tie today and I am delighted to have won.  The conditions were very difficult with the strong wind, especially In the first half when we never really got started, we couldn’t get our passing game started in the conditions but credit to Peterhead they pressed us high up the pitch, which we knew they would because we had already played them pre-season.  In the cup you just want to get through and we managed to do that today, it was good for Andy Kirk to get his first competitive goal for the club which clinched the victory after Ryan McCord had put us ahead from the spot. It was a great debut from young Declan McManus he was absolutely terrific and helped us reach the next round.  The monkey is off my back having never won a cup tie with Alloa in the last 7 matches.  We are now looking to get a good home tie in the next round of the cup.  In the first half our strikers had little to feed off but in the second half with the wind behind us we had lots more possession.  Declan was a real handful and he keeps working, he never stops, you can’t teach that to a player.  I am sure he will get his fair share of goals, he was a little unfortunate today.  Personally, I would like a glamour tie at home, one of the big teams where we would get a big crowd and see if we could go out and shock somebody.  Just to get that result today is great as it has been playing on my mind a bit – a run of seven cup games without a win.  We are looking forward to our first game next week in the Scottish Professional Football League Championship and we will work on a few things during the week before we face Livingston, but we are just pleased to be playing in this division and we will give it a real go.  We still have a few players missing, still a couple carrying knocks but I would be hopeful to have a few back for next week.  I am ready to go!