Reaction

In recent times Hampden Park has been one of grounds where “The Wasps” have a good record of victories, with their last defeat at the National Stadium in Season 2008/09, Saturday’s 2 -1 victory now extends that winning sequence to seven victories in last seven games, lets hope any doubts over the National Stadium, Hampden Park with Queen’s Park ownership will see “The Spiders” still allowed to play at Hampden Park.

Few Alloa Athletic supporters could have predicted “The Wasps” line-up on Saturday against Queen’s Park, with manager Jim Goodwin electing to make four changes to the side that had won 5-3 in midweek against Arbroath. The game itself in the first half had few chances for the sides to open the scoring in a day when the wind and rain appeared to take over. Kris Renton appeared to have a decent penalty claim in a otherwise disappointing first half which ended goalless.

The opening chance in the second half fell to PJ Crossan who was unfortunate to see his chip shot charged down by ex Wasp Michael White in goal for Queen’s. The opening goal by Aideen Keena, currently on loan from Hearts came out of the blue with the striker netting from fully 40 yards to bring the game to life.

Alloa’s reaction was positive and thirteen minutes later Callum Crane scored a great goal in one of the best moves of the match, game on!

The game already had two great goals but in Jordan Kirkpatrick’s winning goal there could be no doubt in the quality of creating the opening and executing the winning strike, to the joy of the Alloa support at Hampden.

jim goodwin after hampden victory

Obviously delighted to win the game, especially after the good performance against Arbroath in midweek it was important that we followed that up, the three points is the most important thing, in the first half I didn’t think there was a great deal in the game I always knew there was more to come from us, unfortunately it took going behind before we got going again. Once again great character from the lads having gone the goal down and then getting that reaction, there were three fantastic goals in the game – the goal that the boy Keena scores for Queen’s Park was an absolute worldly and you could try it another nine or ten times and he wouldn’t be able to do what you had done, so fair play to him.

The most pleasing thing for me was our reaction to going behind, and Callum Crane soon got us right back in the game with a terrific shot into the bottom right hand corner of their net, and then Jordan Kirkpatrick with a wee bit of brilliance in the middle of the park to get away from two or three Queen’s Park defenders and my view was right behind it as soon as it left his foot I knew it was going in, I was delighted for him as well as I know he has been a little frustrated with not being able to get back on the score sheet since he returned to the club but he has played a big part up till now since he came back in January but I know he wants more goals which hopefully that will be the start of that.

I made the four changes in the side from midweek because I am in a position that I have a good squad and we have seven games in March so I am trying to manage the squad as best as I can, Stevie Hetherington didn’t train on Thursday after the midweek game he had a niggle with his calf and toe, so I didn’t want to risk him, but really tried to freshen things up and I think when I have the type of squad at my disposal it would be silly not to do that. I don’t think the changes effected the overall performance, I am confident the changes I make will be like for like but when we went back to our normal 4-3-2-1 in the second half  the boys looked a lot more comfortable.

With nine games left we must concentrate on our own job and try not to worry about Stranraer, Airdrie or East Fife or any other team around us, but just concentrate fully on what we can control which started today against Queen’s Park and in midweek against East Fife a team we always have a difficult tussle they always give us a tough game and they have beaten us twice already this season, so we will look to continue our winning run but we have a lot of huge games coming up, after the East Fife midweek game we have a double header against Airdrieonians on Saturday and then again on the Tuesday but we want to focus fully on East Fife game this Tuesday just now, the boys will recover well Sunday, Monday and then hopefully we will have a fully fit squad to go again on Tuesday and I will make changes again, I have spoke about this to the players already to be fair to them as well but I will freshen things up again on Tuesday night.