Reaction

The Wasps recorded their fourth back to back victory in the second quarter of the season defeating Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill Stadium 2-0, which is also their third back to back shut out. jim Goodwin’s men got of to the perfect start, Iain Flannigan putting the vistors ahead after only 5 minutes.

PJ Crossan then crashed a shot of the underside of the bar as “The Wasps” looked to extend their lead. The surface at Cliftonhill was challenging for both sides, Albion Rovers themselves having only won once a home in the league this season.

In the second half Albion Rovers had lots of possesion but never really troubled their ex keeper Neil Parry who was rock solid behind his defence.

It seemed that Iain Flannigan’s early goal was to be the only goal of the game before Kris Renton replaced Craig Malcolm with nine minutes left. The big striker chased down every ball and was unfortunate not to score two minutes from the end when his shot was cleared off the line after he chased down their keeper.

However in time added on he blocked a clearance from Albion Rovers keeper Graham Bowman and the ball rebounded off him and past the stranded keeper to extend “The Wasps” lead.

jim goodwin after victory at cliftonhill

We came here with a game plan today, we knew the pitch wouldn’t be conducive to the way we would want to play, I think the pitch is a leveller it doesn’t suit either team and it is very hard to play the type of game we would like on it, I think Albion Rovers themselves found it difficult. However, we played the conditions very well and the clean sheet was massive, we knew we would get opportunities – the first goal was a great goal from our point of view, a great ball in from Andy Graham cut back to “Flanny” and it was a great finish, he made it look a lot easier than it actually was especially how the balls were bobbling on the pitch and get such a good connection as he did.

Yes, we would have liked the second goal to come a wee bit earlier than it did, but in fairness to Albion Rovers they were the better team in the second half, there was no doubt about that, but at the same time they had a lot of possession but I thought our shape was good, all their possession was in front of us, they never really hurt us in behind and that was part of our game plan we had worked hard on during the week, which the players carried out and deserve great credit for that.

After the first nine games we hadn’t been good enough and it was a bit of a reality check, we sat down and tried to analysis where we had been going wrong and how we could do better, it was plainly obvious to us – we had to defend better and score more goals, I know it sounds as simple as that and easy, but it is all about the players, it is easy for me to pick formations and tactics and do sessions in training, but it is down to the players to go out on the pitch and for the last four or five weeks the players have been absolutely excellent and I am really pleased they are getting their rewards which they deserve.

I don’t like pointing out just our goalkeeper and our back four because there is an awful lot more to defending than just that part of the team; the guys in front of them work tirelessly, Kevin Cawley never stops running, PJ is doing a great job for the team and there are players doing jobs which don’t come natural to them. We identified one or two of their players who we knew we had to be aware of and gave jobs to certain individuals in our team and I thought they took on the responsibility and did their jobs brilliantly and they deserve huge credit for that.

It’s been a great start to the second quarter, four victories and three shut outs but we must keep our feet on the ground, we have done great to get ourselves back into a good position but its only November, I will not get carried away.