Reaction

Jim Goodwin and the players can be proud of their performance yesterday against a Hibernian side who are clearly in a rich vein of form and will look to impose themselves on the Premier League this season, this was a huge improvement from “The Wasps” after the disappointment at Links Park. Losing an early goal after only fifteen minutes could have unsettled the players but to their credit they stuck to their task and were unlucky not to equalise when Alan Cook had his netbound shot cleared off the line by Hibernian captain Darren McGregor.

The second goal which made it an uphill task was questionable on two accounts, firstly Jon Robertson was fouled in the middle of the park before Hibernian broke and Simon Murray appeared to handle the ball as he scored the goal.

Martin Boyle hand been a handful all day for the Alloa defence and it was him who set up all three goals, the third a bullet header by Simon Murray. “The Wasps” had one last chance when Kris Renton was allowed to break through but his chip shot was saved by keeper Ofir Marciano.

jim goodwin after hibernian game

To lose the game 3-0 is disappointing, but I think in terms of how we played overall it was quite pleasing. I think if anybody had been at our game in midweek at Links Park we were really poor and I asked for a reaction today and I think we got one, I think we played a lot better in possession of the ball than we have played in recent weeks, I thought we defended well enough for most of the game and when I look back at the goals I think – the first one was a decent goal from Hibs point of view, they cut us open, defensively we could look at that. The second goal I felt it was a foul in the middle of the park when Jon Robertson was given a wee nudge, it might have been soft at the time but I had seen them given throughout the afternoon, so I would like a look at that one again, but when it went to 2-0 its an uphill task, the third goal from Hibs point of view was a fantastic ball into the box, a great run from Simon Murray and a great header, sometimes you just have to hold your hands up, if you lose good goals like that, when teams have to do a lot to score, sometimes you just have to accept it. Overall I thought the performance was better than what we have been putting in lately. I Would much rather go into the Raith Rovers game on the back of that performance than the performance last Tuesday night against Montrose at Links Park.

The players were claiming for a handball at the second goal, it looked like he knock it in with his hand but we were more concerned on giving a good account of ourselves, Hibernian were expected to turn up and win, they had scored four and six goals in their past two Betfred Cup ties, we knew how difficult the group was going to be, we knew how difficult our task today would be, at 1-0 I felt if we just stayed in the game we would get an opportunity but the second goal killed that thought. Hibs are a very good side and Neil Lennon is talking about finishing second in the league behind  Celtic and try and get as close as they can. They are two divisions above us they have loads of quality, a team full of internationals, I look at his squad and his bench you can only but envy his choice of players he has behind him. Hibs are a big club and they have great expectation.

I felt my boys did well today, to stick with them as well as we could today, there is two divisions between us and I’m pleased our players were brave enough to go and get on the ball and we tried to play when we could, I would have liked the result to be a bit closer but it wasn’t to be it has been a disappointing tournament for us this season overall, we need to take the positives from today into next Saturday when it really matters in our opening league fixture against a very good Raith Rovers side. We want to get off to a winning start.