Reaction

“The Wasps” laid the foundations for a succesful season in SPFL Ladbrokes League One with a emphatic victory over Jim McInally’s Peterhead, who had been boosted prior to the game by Rory McAllister extending his contract and also having qualified for the last 16 of the Betfred Cup.

Jack Ross watched his side go two goals ahead inside the first fifteen minutes and although the third goal did not come until two minutes before half-time, the team played like in the pre season and league cup games and looked capable of scoring more goals which has now seen the team not lose since 23rd March, 2016 – the last six games of last season, five pre-season games and now five victories in the opening five competive fixtures of the new season.

The team will face Premiership opposition on Tuesday night in the last 16 of the Betfred Cup and will look to progress to the Quarter-final stages, which the club have not achieved since Season 1972/73 when they defeated Ayr United over 2 legs, Willie McCulloch scoring the only goal of the game at Somerset Park which saw “The Wasps” progress to face St. Johnstone over two legs which they lost 3-0 in aggregate.

jack ross after smashing peterhead

Today we continued what we have been like in the pre-season and league cup period. It was a really though opening fixture, which I has said beforehand, but we were good, I thought in the first half in particular but it is natural in the second half I thought the game became a bit scrappy and Peterhead pushed more bodies forward, I thought we could do better in the second half but that’s nip picking overall the players were terrific again, and that was us having to make a couple of changes to the team. Really pleased with the momentum, but you have to be relentless and do it time after time, that is our aim, and we now look forward to Tuesday.

You don’t win the league in the first game of the season and equally you can’t lose it but with everyone in the papers tipping us to win the league, with the greatest of respect, some of these people who have tipped us haven’t seen a lot of us, so these things happen because people just jump on the bandwagon, but equally from a mentality point of view it is a good thing for us and other teams to think that way, but we have to live up to that and there is certainly a group of players in the dressing room who want to do it. I’ve said it before we will have bumps and dips throughout the season but at the moment we are on that crest of a wave and there is no reason why we cannot keep that up.

Jordan Kirkpatrick is a player I had worked and played with in the past, the quality that he has got is unquestionable, however he has still not fulfilled his potential and has more to offer the game in my opinion, I knew from working with him, he would get every opportunity working with me at Alloa, his quality is really good, his two goals today were fantastic. I don’t think we have scored any scrappy goals yet this season, hopefully that will come in other games, which at times can be just as important. The impact we have had from our playing coming off the bench has been fantastic, I took Jordan off bringing on Isaac Layne, who is really frustrated because he has not been starting, he is causing me a headache all the time because his contribution after coming on has been terrific, scoring again today after only just coming on the pitch, this keeps him in a positive frame of mind and I can’t ask any more from him.

The game on Tuesday is just as important, I know people will say the league is more important but we didn’t pull all our effort in the Group stages of the Betfred Cup just to get a Premiership team and rollover and have our tummy tickled, we are there to win the game. I was at a supporters event last night and I asked a couple of guys “When was the last time the club was in the Quarter Finals of the League Cup and I think they thought maybe the seventies” it was Season 1972/73, so that in itself means we want to progress in the tournament and it will be a very difficult game again but we are going into it in the best possible frame of mind and it is a brilliant game to look forward to, our only frustration is the fact I will now not see the players until they turn up for the game, but that’s the challenges this job throws at you.