Reaction

A late goal denied “The Wasps” full points against an Ayr United side at Somerset Park who were tipped for promotion and started the season on fire. “The Wasps” were to lose the opening goal for the fourth game in a row against a side who were looking to bounce back after losing to league leaders Raith Rovers the previous week. After being disappointed at losing a bad goal the Alloa players response was positive and they took the upper hand in the game and scored a deserved equaliser, when Frank McKeown deflected Jon Robertson’s shot into the net.

Kevin Cawley put “The Wasps” in front with his 49th competitive goal for the club and his third goal in last three games with a header which went in a t the top right hand side of the goal.

Jamie Adams the pulled a goal back for the home side to draw the sides level again before his celebrations were cut short when referee Euan Anderson awarded Alloa a penalty when he was adjudged to have handled a Frank McKeown header in the box, Scott Taggart coolly stepped forward and put “The Wasps” back in front at 3-2.

However just like last week there was still late drama in the game when Lawrence Shankland equalised for the home side four minutes into time added on and although it felt like a defeat losing such a late equaliser we came here to win and came so close, it was a hugely encouraging performance and there were plenty of positives. The squad is still getting to know each other after all the changes in the summer but they can take great credit from this display.

JIM GOODWIN AFTER DRAW AT AYR

I’ll be dreading tomorrow after that, I felt great for an hour then I started to feel I was running up hill, it’s a long while since I played 90 minutes, I didn’t really envisage playing much this season but I registered myself as a player, but recently we have been looking like the walking wounded with a number of injuries to key players, we have players with viruses as well and we were short of numbers, we were even two players light on the bench today, so that’s why I had to go out and play, needs must, I enjoyed the game but we are obviously disappointed to lose a goal in the last minute but I have to say it was a great game of football, from a neutral point of view it must have been very good to watch, very exciting, end to end, both teams having a go.

I just thought when we got to 3-2 and it being so late in the game, we were controlling the game at that time and I thought we would see the game out but to get hit with that sucker punch right at the end was a bit of a killer.

The first fifteen minutes we weren’t in the game, we struggled with their shape, I felt myself and Frank were too deep and the gap between us and the midfield was too big but once we got to grips after the first 15 minutes I thought we were the better team in the first half certainly in the last 30 minutes of the first half, in the second half there wasn’t much in it but when you get yourself to 3-2 and there is only a couple of minutes left we would have liked to see it out.

We haven’t defended poorly today yet we have conceded three goals, but if you score three goals it should be enough to win any game and that’s the disappointing thing from our point of view. There is not one player out there I could say had a below par performance, I thought they were all at it and for 90 minutes that is probably the best we have played consistently, every player was excellent and we just have to carry that to next week.

We had a lot of changes in the summer and we lost a lot of key players, I have brought in 7 or 8 boys who have been fantastic but people need to realise it takes a lot of time for lads to get to know each other, particularly for part time teams who only see each other on a Tuesday and Thursday night, so it takes a wee bit of time for the players to gel and get the know each other and how they like to play, we have also been unlucky with injuries to key players and struggled to field the same starting eleven since the first day of the season, that is  difficult because you are constantly chopping and changing which doesn’t help boys get use to playing beside each other, these aren’t excuses and other teams will have the same situations with injuries and niggles, that is the reason we have squads and we have to utilise that but I’m delighted with our performance today but disappointed only not to have collected all three points but there are plenty of positives to take from today’s game.