Reaction

Alloa Athletic were to lose out at Somerset Park after they were denied a second half penalty when firstly Martyn Campbell held back Jim Lister and secondly in the same attack in the box in the second half, Jim Lauchlan blocked Fraser Forrest’s goalbound header with his hands to avoid a Alloa Athletic a well deserved equaliser. The Wasps started the match with nine players unavailable to the extent manager Allan Maitland had to list two “trialists” – Fraser Forrest & Roger Duffin who both play for Bo’ness United and their manager ex Alloa Athletic player, Willie Newbigging helped his old team greatly on this occassion, both players were excellent. Alloa Athletic started the game strongly, added by the presence of Brown Ferguson making his first start of the season, Michael McGowan was unfortunate to see a shot hit the base of the right hand post and then Bryan Prunty sent Darren Smith clear with the best chance of the game but his shot was saved by the Ayr United keeper. The Wasps were again the regret their missed opportunies when on the stroke of half time Ryan McCann scored completely against the run of play. The turning point was indeed the denial of the penalty award in the second half and Alloa Athletic took nothing out of a game they richly deserved something from.

ALLAN MAITLAND AT SOMERSET PARK

First and foremost I must compliment the two guys who have come in at centre back from Bo’ness United for this game – Roger Duffin & Fraser Forrest, they were excellent, I had asked them to get really tight on Mark Roberts and Michael Moffat and they did that and restricted that route because a lot of Ayr’s good football comes through Roberts. We played great in the first half and Michael McGowan was unfortunate when his shot hit the post but when you are in our current situation you have got to score when you get opportunities and Darren Smith was given an absolute stone wall sitter and didn’t manage to score as luck has it, Ayr went up the park and scored right on half-time totally against the run of play in the first half. However at half-time when we came in on top of our players who were missing for the game – Andy Scott had taken a knock, Bryan Prunty was being sick, Bomber was sore, Jim Lister had taken a knock, but the boys all wanted back out to play and I thought we did well again in the second half– Jim Lister was unfortunate with a header which he could so easily have scored with but the big decision today was the penalty!
Before the incident proceeded to the player hand balling the ball to clear, it was a penalty kick on Jim Lister when Martyn Campbell had his hands wrapped round about him in the box and that is a penalty, we don’t get that – the goalkeeper makes a magnificent save from Michael Dunlop’s pile driver and then big Jim Lauchlan punches the ball clear and that was not just a penalty kick but a sending off as well, we are not getting these decisions, but we need them, if you are not getting the decisions which are yours, but I did think the referee was absolutely excellent, but these decisions change games and results, he obviously didn’t see it but we just need days when officials see our penalties and not just the oppositions. That was a big decision today for us which didn’t go for us and you could see by the reaction of the players. Later in the game in the last ten minutes Ayr came back into the came when we started to struggle with all the effort we had put in, the centre backs were getting deeper and the game started to stretch and I felt in the last ten minutes Ayr United played better and had opportunities but I can’t fault our players for effort, application and spirit of the team was fantastic and I feel anybody who has been at the game would believe we deserved something from the game.
However we must not start feeling sorry for ourselves, today is a day of encouragement for the players, I know the result is another defeat but we played so well and consistently offered a threat throughout the game, so much of football is confidence and one result can lift a team, we need it to change and today we needed to score that first goal and when we get opportunities like Darren’s we must score and that changes the mood.