Reaction

Losing such a late injury time goal to Ayr United for the second time this season was hard to take and very cruel on a very good Alloa performance which the players did not deserve to be on the losing side. The visitors took an early lead after only 4 minutes when Michael Moffat headed home.

Alloa battled back in a first half which both sides had opportunities to score, Jon Robertson hit the top of the bar with an effort before Ayr captain Ross Docherty cleared off the line with Kevin Cawley looking to score at the back post, Alloa did have the ball in the net but PJ Crossan was flagged offside.

In the second half playing towards their favoured Clackmanan Road end of the ground “The Wasps” eventually got the equalising goal they deserved, when Scott Taggart fired home at the second attempt to score his third goal of the season.

If anything at this stage in the game nobody could deny Alloa were looking like the team who could win the game and came close to getting in front with three minutes to go Kevin Cawley watched as his shot hit the outside of the post and run to safety. With time running out Alloa were awarded a free kick just outside the box to the right of centre, both Iain Flannigan and Alan Cook stood over the ball and with most Alloa people in the ground hoping Iain Flannigan could repeat some of his free kick winners in the past, Alan Cook hit the free kick into the Ayr United wall and the opportunity was lost.

However worse was to follow as Ayr themselves were awarded a free kick and quickly launched the ball upfield where their top goalscorer Craig Moore seized on the opportunity to score his 16th goal of the season and Ayr’s 67th competitive goal this season to win the points.

jim goodwin after defeat to ayr

It was tough to take, losing a late goal in any game is a sickner but particularly in one so important, and we worked ever so hard in the second half to get ourselves back into the game and lost the game in practically the last kick of the ball. Really gutted for the players because they put an awful lot into the game, the first goal against us I felt, Lawrence Shankland is clever he uses his body well, when the centre half is in the air and he gets the slightest nudge it puts him off and he couldn’t go and win the header – clever from their point of view but I thought it was a free kick. We hit the post at 1-1 through Kevin Cawley, I know they hit the crossbar a couple of times, we had chances in the first half, one cleared off the line, so I think it was a really entertaining game from a neutral aspect. I think both teams really tried to play and having a go, obviously it did not go our way today and we are disappointed. It would have been a big point, I honestly don’t think we did enough to win, it would have been a great point particularly for our play in the second half, devastated be honest.

We have won our last five games so it was a great run to be on, I said that to the players they can take a lot of pride and credit for that, they weren’t easy games but it allowed us to claw ourselves back into contention, to maintain that run today would have been nice, we wanted all three points but if we could have taken a point at the end I would have been satisfied.

I was sent to the stand because I had a disagreement with the referee about the foul throw, it was nothing as far as I was concerned, I thought it was pathetic it happens every week, the ball goes out of play in one area and the players always try and steal four or five yards and that’s what Callum Crane done in our instance, but if you are going to start giving foul throws for that, then there will be ten or twelve foul throws per game, so I disagreed with his decision, the game actually went on for another two or three minutes and I was quite happy it was done, but then he comes marching over and sends me to the stand which was disappointing because I never had any issue with the officials and it is the first time in my managerial career that I have been sent up to the stand and it’s not something I thought would happen to be honest with you, but some referees you just can’t talk and that’s unfortunately what the wee man was like today.

We would like to get back to winning ways against Raith Rovers next week, it’s a great game for us to go into, we were huge underdogs today, nobody gave us a hope in hell of getting anything today, everybody expected Ayr to come here and win and wipe the floor with us but I think my guys gave a great account of themselves again, it took a last minute equaliser down at Somerset Park and it has taken a last minute winner today to beat us, so if Ayr are the best team in the league and we can go toe to toe with them in both games then I think it shows how good a team we can be, we should take great pride in that and that’s why we can look forward to the game against Raith Rovers next week because in the first game of the season at the indodrill it took a last minute goal for Raith Rovers to deny us taking all three points that day. We have a great group of players, we will dust ourselves down and get back to business at training on Tuesday night and prepare as we always do for another difficult game next week.