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A great chance was missed against Stranraer on Saturday, knowing a point would mathematically clinch “The Wasps” Play-Off spot and end Stranraer’s valiant effort to catch either Alloa or Arbroath. However Stevie Farrell’s side managed to get the imortant opening goal when Morgyn Neill’s effort could only be knocked high into the top corner of the net by Neil Parry.

The match then followed a similar pattern to Stranraer’s 1-0 victory on 24th February, 2018 when Alloa threw everything at “The Blues” but found their defence resolute. Indeed “The Wasps” had a great opportunity to open the scoring in the second half when Stranraer keeper Max Currie miskicked in front of goal but the ball wouldn’t bounce kindly and it was eventually cleared to safety.

Alloa incresed their intensity in the second half and had opportunities to get at least an equaliser. Ross Stewart was caused the Stranraer defence lots of problems with keeper Currie having to pull of a point blank save from a header and Ross Stewart came even closer with another header off a post.

A mixture of brave defending and Alloa being wasteful in front of goal made certain Stranraer gained the points they had came to The Indodrill Stadium in search of their first victory at the ground since 23rd October, 2004.

The Wasps now travel to Station Park, Forfar next Saturday still with a six point advantage over Stranraer and a far better goal difference of + 11, against Stranaer with – 7. The players will now be desperate to move on to the next game and get the required result which would clinch our Play-Off spot.

jim goodwin after failing to clinch playoff spot

We are disappointed not to have clinched our place in the Play-Off’s, obviously before the game we knew we needed another point and we impressed the importance of a clean sheet today but unfortunately we weren’t able to that and get us over the line.

It was a disappointing goal to concede. We are usually very good at set pieces but unfortunately Morgyn Neill gets the better of Andy, and to be fair it’s a decent header.

I just felt in the first half we were quite flat, we had to lift the tempo and we spoke about this at half-time, but nine minutes into the second half we concede a goal, after we conceded the goal we threw everything at them but unfortunately we couldn’t unlock their defence.

They’ve done great against us in our four games and they’ve turned into a bit of a nemesis for us, we knew it was going to be a difficult game. However it’s in our own hands we are still in a good position we have three games left, we will just have to go to Forfar next Saturday and try to get the job done there.

Stranraer sat with their two banks of four, they were very well organized and we just didn’t move the ball quick enough but I can’t be over critical of the lads, we have just came through a seven game spell in March when we scored 18 goals which is a fantastic return from the lads, we have been looking dangerous in recent weeks but unfortunately today it wasn’t quite there.

We are not panicking by any stretch but at the same time we are taking nothing for granted, we watched Brechin City do it last year, Stranraer are on a very good run of form just now so it is up to ourselves and Arbroath to get the job done and hopefully sooner rather than later.

We need a point it is as simple as that, we go into every game trying to win and that was no different today – but we didn’t work their goalkeeper enough and we weren’t as good as we normally are, unfortunately it was just one of these afternoon’s. I didn’t feel there was a great deal between the teams, possession wise probably even and I can’t remember either keeper having much to do, it was just that one instance from a corner we switched off, I know they hit the crossbar with a great shot from Kyle Turner and the Stranraer goalkeeper made a good save from Ross Stewart’s header late on from a corner as well when he managed to get a good hand on it.

We have managed to pick up 21 points from losing positions this season and it took us to go behind again today before we managed to get the intensity levels up to where they need to be.