Reaction

The points were shared at Gayfield on Saturday which was probably about right. The Wasps had a great chance to open the scoring after only 16 minutes when ex Alloa defender, Colin Hamilton fouled PJ Crossan in the box but Scott Taggart’s penalty was saved by his ex teammate David Hutton who guessed correctly and then pulled off a great double save to deny Kris Renton.

Indeed the Arbroath keeper was again centre of attention when he let slip a Iain Flannigan free kick into the box and the ball deflected off luckless defender David Gold to give Alloa the lead.

However it was the keeper would pick up the plaudits after a string of saves, none better than his save from Jon Robertson’s long range effort and then point blank from PJ Crossan, which was to earn him Sponsors “Man of the Match” award.

jim goodwin at gayfield

At the end of the day a draw was probably a fair result, their keeper has made a couple of great saves, we seem to be hitting keepers with form at the moment, the Albion Rovers boy last week made three or four great saves and today again the Arbroath keeper has made a couple of great saves – a good save from the penalty and the one late in the second half when he made a great double save from Jon Robertson’s shot and PJ Crossan effort blocked, but Arbroath had their chances as well and Neilly had to make a good save so from a neutral point of view it was certainly end to end football. It was a good reaction from my point of view after conceding five goals last week, I thought we looked more defensively solid today I thought we defended the box relatively well.

I was pleased with PJ Crossan making such an impact for a young guy, he was making his first start for us and he can be pleased. I think their keeper makes a good save from Scott Taggart’s penalty, he took it well and had plenty of pace on the ball but I think the boy read it and made a great save with a strong arm and then blocked Kris effort with the rebound. You then think it’s not our day and then we got a good bit of luck with the own goal, but if the penalty had went in it could have been a different game.

At the Arbroath penalty, I thought it was a penalty at the time, sometimes you get them sometimes you don’t, I think Jon got caught on the wrong side of their player, I don’t think he deliberately pulled him down but the guy runs across you and inevitably feet tangle and the referee got that one right.

Arbroath are a good team on a very good run they beat Stranraer 6-2 last week away from home, they are a very good side with good options to come off the bench, our bench was struggling with Craig Malcolm nursing a sore ankle, Garry Fleming did his hamstring in the warm up, still missing Andy Graham, I don’t want to make excuses but we are looking forward to the International break and give us a chance to recharge the batteries and rehabilitation and looking to have a more fit squad for our trip to Stranraer.