Reaction

Liam Buchanan once again came back to haunt his old club, manager Jim Goodwin had to reshuffle his side which defeated Brechin City the previous week, after Iain Flannigan called off with a back injury on the morning of the game. Livingston had the first chance when Sean Crighton’s header was brilliantly saved by Neil Parry. Alloa looked like they had opened the scoring after 11 minutes but Greig Spence’s effort was ruled offside. Andy Graham, then found himself in great position inside the box but his shot was saved by the home keeper thwarting the opening goal. Unfortunately for “The Wasps” the big defender had to leave the field of play a minute prior to half time after a sickening clash of heads with Livingston captain Sean Crighton. Again at the start of the second “The Wasps” had a great opportunity to go ahead, a back defensive mistake by Crighton left Greig Spence with one on one opportunity but his shot struck the legs of keeper Liam Kelly.

Three minutes later Alloa were punished when fortune favoured the home side, Mikey Miller’s shot took a wicked deflection off Pat Scullion and gave Livingston the crucial opening goal. Liam Buchanan then was given the doubt of offside to curl home a second goal. As much as Alloa threw at Livingston in the latter part of the game, they were caught on the break and Liam scored the killer third goal. Greig Spence did pull a goal back in the final minute of the game after a foul on Kevin Cawley for his 13th goal of the season.

jim goodwin after tasting first defeat as a manager

Disappointed, goals change games as they say and it was a clear indication of that today, just prior to Livingston taking the lead, we had a one on one opportunity and the goal which was chalked off in the first half. There was nothing in the game it was it was going from end to end but they always had a threat going forward but I thought we had handled it well, but big Andy Graham going off, he is a big player for us but I thought Pat Scullion came on and done fine.

The opening goal took the aid of a deflection, Neil Parry made a great save just before but getting the first goal was important. We then had to chase the game a bit after that.

Andy Graham has had stitches but at the time when it happened he was out for two or three seconds but came round again, the big man being the player he is he wanted to play on but it was the right decision to take him off, the blood was not the major issue but we just didn’t want to take a risk he is such an important player and we will now have to consider the effect of concussion and the implications, but the decision was made for the players welfare, but we have a strong enough squad to cope with injuries.

The goals were poor, disappointing, I wasn’t sure about the second one, I would need to watch them back to see if Liam was offside, that is a decision that can go for you or against you sometimes and the third goal we were chasing the game at that point, we will be disappointed at the defending but it was a fantastic finish by Liam Buchanan, they have that quality going forward, overall the way the second half went I think Livingston just deserved it.

Iain Flannigan phoned on the morning of the match, he has a problem with his back and we were not willing to risk playing “Flanny” in one game and maybe lose him for 5 or 6, so it was only right that young Adam Martin was given his chance, the wee man has been different class in training, he skins boys in training all the time, he has been playing really well in the development team and scored a fantastic goal against Berwick Rangers during the week, I just felt it was a good time to throw him in and I thought he did fine, I don’t think we got the ball to him enough but he certainly didn’t make any mistakes or look out of place, I would rather have blooded him slower and maybe give him 15 or 20 minutes here or there, even 30 minutes, but it was a decision I made, it was an attacking decision because I wanted to go and win the game and I thought he done fine, we took him off which was nothing to do with his performance, it was a senior game for him and a different level and I didn’t want him getting injured before the end.

Ben Gordon going back to St. Mirren was a mutual kind of agreement, I felt that Jason & Andy were pivotal to us going on the good run at the start of the season and my first decision at Brechin last week was to bring Jason back into the side because I felt I owed him that loyalty for the good work he has done up till now. Ben is a fantastic lad, a great player and he took it really well but at the same time, Jack could do with him back at St. Mirren, there was no issues but Ben wasn’t going to be happy sitting on the bench, he came here to play games and I couldn’t guarantee him games.