Alloa reverted to the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 with Mendy and King dropping out of the starting XI to make way for the stalwarts of Robertson and Cawley.

It was the home side who created the tantalising chances in the early minutes, Boyd would rue an early opening shot as he chested down Robertson’s cross, and unmarked could only smash it at Muir in the centre of the Queen’s Park goal. Mouhamed ‘Sena’ Niang also had a driven effort fly wide. Sammon charging through was almost brutally smashed by an errant knee, Wullie Muir lucky to escape with just a yellow after a nasty challenge on the Irishman and Kevin Cawley would meet another Robertson cross with a header straight at the Spider’s keeper.

The major deciding factor of the first half was the quickfire double yellow of Craig Howie, after being second to a 50/50 and inflicting a fair amount of pain on him and his opposite number he was shown a yellow and 16 minutes later would receive a second yellow after a naive sliding challenge missed ball and caught man. It was a galling decision from an Alloa viewpoint especially as Queen’s Park skipper and former Alloa legend Michael Doyle had escaped a similar mistimed tackle on Sammon minutes earlier.

But as the first half wore on Queen’s were held to only long range efforts on Hutton’s goal.

The second half saw Alloa soaking up the pressure in what can accurately be described as two banks, a 4-5 formation, with the introduction of King for Cawley. But again somehow the hosts were the ones challenging on goal as Sammon curled on his weak foot into the arms of Muir and Boyd couldn’t quite run himself into a shooting position as Muir was again forced to come collect the ball at the Alloa forward’s feet.

But just as the Queen’s Park lack of imagination was showing, Doyle whipped in a ball to the 6 yard box, Hutton gets caught in no man’s land, and neither Robertson or Graham can stop Simon Murray nodding in for the opener from the visitors.

Credit to the Barry Ferguson who immediately saw the need to open things up again, O’Donnell and Mendy coming on for Taggart and Sammon, and the system changed to a much brighter 3-1-4-1. The Wasps kept finding openings and Queen’s Park were forced to bite at the heels of Boyd and Scougall which only stirred the hornet’s nest at the Indodrill as the 10 men began to make it a stretched end to end tie.

With Sena being brought down a hairs-breadth outwith the box, up stepped Boyd to deliver a free-kick off the bar twice and over the line but the equaliser hadn’t put paid to the breathless end to the game. Queen’s Park managed to smack the bar after Murray’s effort was barely deflected off course and Boyd was blocked smartly up the other end after another dazzling solo run. Both title hopefuls left with a hard-fought point.

Barry Ferguson, Alloa Athletic Manager

“One thing the boys showed today was character, that’s the most important thing.”

It’s a bitter defeat as Alloa come back from Broadwood with nought.

The first half was a fairly benign affair with neither side testing the opposing goalkeeper seriously, but Alloa showed the most signs of life with a few dangerous attacks broken up at crucial moments.

In the second half Alloa had switched from their unorthodox 3-4-3 and slotted into a more familiar 4-2-3-1 after Boyd was heavily muted in his wing back role in the first half. But it would be Clyde who made the opening breakthrough. A long ball to Goodwillie was met clumsily by Mendy, Alloa were slow to pressure the knockdown so Clyde switched play from left to right to Cunningham. His delivery saw Goodwillie finally win the running battle between him and Mendy, rising highest to drive a header past the flailing Hutton.

Alloa would respond to this set-back as Robertson, O’Donnell and Armour replaced Mendy, King and Boyd. New signing from Partick Thistle Mo ‘Sena’ Niang zipped a ball into Sammon. The frontman layed off neatly for Scougall and on his left foot, he smashed the ball low toward goal. Mitchell’s hands were not enough to divert the effort and it crashed off the post and in to drag the Wasps back into the game.

From there the game was almost a procession toward the Clyde goal but Alloa would time and time again fail to find the killer touch and the winning goal.

In the 89th minute, after absorbing a load of Alloa pressure, Goodwillie struck against an isolated Andy Graham, rolling the ball up the byline and smashing the roof of the net as he charged toward the 6 yard box. A special goal to give Clyde their first win in the league this season but bitter for the Wasps who only had themselves to blame.

Barry Ferguson, Alloa Manager

First half, we never played well at all. Second half, again, we started really poorly.

Had to change the formation, make a number of changes and then we get the goal and we’re on the front foot. Then, if you’re not going to win the game, you’ve got to see the game out. To lose a goal in the last couple of minutes is not good enough.

If you’re not going to be consistently performing you’re not going to be in the team

It’s a worry, with a similar team. You’ve seen the performance [against East Fife], how they played. Then to go from that level back down; it was basically the same sort of performance as Peterhead. It’s a concern, I need to sort that as quickly as possible and I will sort that as quickly as possible. If you’re not going to be consistently performing you’re not going to be in the team, that’s the most important thing.

As I said, you can’t go from being so dominant last week to not laying a finger on Clyde until we make the formation change. There’s no excuses about the formation, last week it worked really well. We worked on it again and then obviously have to go and change it by bringing a central midfielder on to left back [and] a young player out wide.

I’m not going to beat about the bush, it’s not good enough

Alloa gave two debuts today as Mark Durnan made his first start and we saw an interesting 3-4-3 formation take shape for the outing against East Fife. With the elite SBS (Scougall, Boyd and Sammon) leading the line Alloa looked to carve the early opportunities. The pressure told after 29 minutes when Scougall slipped past Higgins, charged into the East Fife box and laid on an outside of the boot through ball for Boyd to hit home at the back post. David Hutton made a magnificent to deny Danny Denholm, a player who seems cursed to defeat at the Indodrill, as the veteran athletically launched a strong arm to beat the ball away from the equaliser.

In the second half East Fife reclaimed parity with a sublime Jamie Semple pile driver. Hutton beaten at full stretch as the ball rocketed past him from 25 yards. With the confidence of the wondergoal firmly in mind, East Fife pushed for a second but it was the Wasps who would bite back. Daniel Church providing a precision cross to pick out Conor Sammon. The Irishman poked home at the front post to restore the Alloa lead. Just a minute after the restart East Fife were punished as Sammon, Boyd and Scougall executed a swift counterattack and raced through with the former Hamilton man firing past Gallacher to give himself a chance at a hat trick.

Alloa managed the game out as East Fife struggled to triage a wounded front line. Alloa’s league campaign getting back on track as they jumped to 6th in League 1.

We dominated the game

Barry Ferguson : “In the first half, I think we dominated the game, no doubt about that. We were a wee bit wobbly, they scored the goal, felt a bit sorry for ourselves but I was waiting on a reaction and I got that. Once we got the second goal, I always thought we were going to be in control. When we got the third goal we just saw out the game.”

“That’s what I want. The only thing I can be disappointed in is the first 15 minutes of the second half but I got a reaction with good nights on Tuesday and Thursday and obviously a good result against East Fife, who got a great result against Queen’s Park last week.”

We’ll get there through hard work

“[Scoring’s] been a problem for Alloa over the years and that’s one thing we need to do. We’re solid enough defensively but we need to create more opportunities. Today, we were good and we’ve got three goals. That’s something we work hard on but something that won’t happen overnight because it’s a new group but we’ll get there through hard work.”

“The market is slow in terms of loans but just now we need to work with what we’ve got but hopefully we can have one or two back in contention after Tuesday night.”

He’s phenomenal

“Scougs was in a different position today, He’s got fantastic ability but one thing I love about him is his work rate. He’s phenomenal. If you look at him he’s about 8 stone wet but he gives me everything. I need to get a position where I can build my team around a player like him. He’s a matchwinner when he plays like that.”