Reaction

Today was a result of intent, bouncing back from the disappointment of last week at Annan, manager Paul Hartley changed his team formation and personnel to best cope with the potential danger from Peterhead’s dangerous strikeforce. This was an excellent three points in a game Alloa won more easier than the scoreline suggests, Peterhead going ahead after 30 minutes at a pooerly defended free kick. In the second half Alloa took the game from the outset and equalised in the opening minute of the second half when “Man of the Match” Kevin Cawley scored his first goal of the game, however his second goal was worthy of winning anygame and throughly deserved. The third goal did not arrive which “The Wasps” play deserved but in the end Alloa collected the three points which on the day was the most important statistic.

paul hartley after peterhead game

I thought the boys were terrific today, overall I thought we deserved to win the game. We played all the football and looked like we could score every time we went up the park. Although we were behind at half time I told the guys to be patient and the goals would come. Kevin Cawley was terrific again today, his work rate and overall play was great and his two goals he scored he made them out of nothing. He had easier chances in the first half but the two goals he scored were terrific for us. We are delighted and it is a great three points, we now go into a break and hopefully we can still keep the momentum going. The football was terrific and we will always encourage that – I have said that to my players we will not change for anyone the way that we play – we will continue to try and pass it and hopefully it will pay its rewards in the end, I must make a special mention for our two centre backs, I was very pleased with them, their understanding can only get better. I am delighted with the win a great three points for us. Michael Doyle also showed great energy getting up and down the park and that is what full backs have to do nowadays. Our two full backs were excellent today – but it was a good overall team performance today. The team showed great character – a goal down at half time other teams might have buckled but we told them to keep believing and passing the ball and we got there in the end. A great reward. We changed our system today and I was pleased to say it worked for us. We played 4-2-3-1 with four really attacking players and it worked for us today. We did change the shape of the team after losing at Annan last week but it was terrific today. We felt we needed to change the personnel a little bit and play a system we thought we could hurt Peterhead. In the last couple of weeks we have had lots of possession but not really a cutting edge but today we found that in a system that really suited us today.

john sheran – peterhead manager

For our second half performance we did not deserve anything out of today’s game, losing the goals we did – we didn’t deserve anything and that is what we got nothing. We had a couple of chances – they were easily preventable goals but we didn’t manage to keep the ball in their part of the park in the second half, which invited trouble on ourselves. The goals certainly knocked the wind out of our sails a bit, but at 1-1 the game was very much still alive – there is no reason why we couldn’t have kicked on and taken something out of the game. There is a lot of work to do and I need to pick them up and get them going – we have a fortnight to do that before the next game. We had been ahead with a good goal and no reason why we couldn’t have gone on and did something in the second half as well but you need to start the half properly – that is what it comes down to but instead we went backwards.