Reaction

Allan Maitland was a happy man after “The Wasps” stormed back to win their first League game of the season, defeating the visitors, Stranraer 5-1 after the Stair Park side had edged in front. Although the first half ended goalless “The Wasps” had started brightly and should have been ahead in the first 20 minutes which they dominated, however after 27 minutes Stranraer had a great chance to go ahead when Chris Townsley fouled Kevin Nicholl in the box, ex Stirling Albion player Andy Gibson took the kicj but sent it high over the bar. Then on the stroke of half time Kevin Nicholl was red carded for a two footed challenge, again by the same referee, Steven McLean who had red carded Steven McKeown at Dunfermline in midweek. Stranraer took the lead, when their best player Gregory Tade scored his fourth goal of the season. This appeared to wake up the home side and after efforts had been cleared off the line and come back from the post Kyle MacAulay got the deserved equaliser in 57 minutes, Scot Buist headed home in 62 minutes and a minute later Graeme brown made it 3-1. Kyle MacAulay increased the lead to 4-1 with a diving header in 65 minutes, which was four goals in eight minutes. Andy Ferguson, although not getting on the scoresheet on this occasion was excellent and let’s hope he can stay injury free. Ten minutes from the end Andy Scott made it 5-1 with a shot which took at least two deflections, it had been a good day for “The Wasps”.

allan maitland after stranraer game

Strange game I thought – I thought we started the game really well in the first 15-20 minutes, we had two or three good chances to score, didn’t score and that I had to say I thought the last 25 minutes of the first half Stranraer got a hold of the ball in our half and played well and deserved their penalty kick which went over the bar and we got a break from that. The sending off, I thought initially looked a bit soft but the player having gone for the second one as well, which I thought was stupid, I thought he forced the referee’s hand, similar to Steven McKeown’s sending off at Dunfermline on Tuesday night, and it was a sending off today as well, if you are going to tackle with two feet you must expect it. In the second half again we were very slow at starting and Stranraer scored a very good goal, although it was poor defending by us, and at that stage I thought we were very flat and out of the blue we scored a goal and the lift that gave us you could see right away, it gave us a huge lift and then after that I thought we played really well for about 20 minutes, I thought Andy Ferguson was outstanding and that made all the difference to our game, obviously we rattled in 4 goals very quickly and the game was dead at that stage – you don’t have to look far to see where Stranraer’s problems are – I think with everything that is happening to them just now as soon as they went behind you could see them losing heart and obviously down to ten men it becomes a really difficult time for them and obviously you feel for them. From our point of view we needed to win we cannot afford to feel for them until after the game – I am obviously delighted to have won the game especially with the international break coming up – it gives us two weeks to get the injured players fit and ready to play. Fraser Forrest, David McClune and Jamie Stevenson – it was absolutely vital for us to win today and not get isolated at the bottom of the league – I expect all three of them to be ready for the Stirling Albion game – we are getting there slowly but surely. In my head before today’s game I was thinking it’s a game we cannot afford to loose, if we are going to have any realistic hope of ending in a play off slot or doing better than that we need to make sure we are in the mix come the end of the season and beating teams like Stranraer or Arbroath for that matter – we lost one 4-1 and won the other 5-1. When we are at home we must make sure we win these games. As I said we are pleased to win it and now I can genuinely say that my sympathies are with Stranraer in their situation but for the whole 90 minutes our concentration has to be on winning the game – for three weeks of not getting any breaks whatsoever and at the spell when it was 1-0 to Stranraer we had one of the line, one of the post and Andy Ferguson missed the ball from 6 yards out and it looked like it wasn’t going to be our day and then every break came our way – Andy Scott’s goal took 2 or 3 deflections before ending in the net but you earn your breaks and the extra man helped and it was good to see the team starting to show a bit of confidence and I was happy with that. We now look forward to the game against Stirling Albion on a high and I think that is important.