Reaction

Manager Allan Maitland will view this as two points dropped in a game Dumbarton were desperate not to lose any more goals as they have in other away games this season, The Wasps had plenty of chances especially in the first half, but they were never clear cut and ex Alloa Athletic keeper Michael White will be well pleased with his performance against his old side. Alloa had lots of possession but needed to score that elusive first goal which would have opened up the game, although they pinned Dumbarton back most of the game they didn’t create much clear cut chances and in the end had to settle for a draw, which on the plus side is better than The Wasps managed against “The Sons” at Recreation Park last season.

allan maitland after draw with sons

I think it was a decent game of football the two teams played it open and we had perhaps the better of our chances in the first half. It’s frustrating not to win the game but am equally pleased that our concentration level at the back was good and we managed another shut out. I thought that while Billy Gibson was awarded the man of the match , Kevin McDonald was outstanding and controlled a lot of the game for us in the centre of the park and I feel a little unfortunate that we didn’t win the game. It was still a decent performance, so much so I was looking at the bench and was trying to figure out a change to make it better but I felt everybody on the park was doing their job the only thing was we could not get find that one clear cut chance, although Jim Lister was unfortunate when he struck the post. Dumbarton were well organised and ultimately hard to beat. It’s a frustrating day but it’s a point better from Dumbarton than we took from them at home last season. The important thing today was to score the first goal and the game would have opened up, the longer the game stayed at 0-0 Dumbarton moved from three at the back to end the game with five across the back who sat across the 18 yard box and we couldn’t get in behind them. It’s two points lost because it’s a home game – it’s a frustrating day. David Gormley and Darren Smith were our most creative players but Darren got a knock at half time and that took a bit of the effectiveness away from him. I wanted to keep him on the park because I thought it was a positive thing having him on the park allowing Mike Dunlop to go and support him. We never resorted to just lumping the ball forward but with their three centre backs being so tight at the back they didn’t allow Bryan Prunty or Jim Lister to get a clear chance on goals, based on that a draw is fair – Dumbarton came here well organised and tight and for that alone they deserve their point. In Dumbarton’s last away game they lost six goals and we were aware of that and they certainly were aware of that. Darren Smith had two good chances in the first half and if we had scored the first goal they would then need to come at us and the game would have opened up. I think we might find a lot more of that this year and that was part of the reason it was so important to get Jinky onto the park – I kept Jim Lister on the park hoping to get crosses to him but taking David Gormley off the crosses stopped funnily enough. We were less of a threat in the last ten minutes of the game after the substitution. Defensively we were very good today, last season Dumbarton beat us twice at Recreation Park and on both occasions one of their best players was Mike Dunlop, having Mike now with us has made us defensively better this season.