Reaction

This was a game “The Wasps” needed to take all three points as they looked to close the gap on Livingston at the top of the table. Jordan Kirkpatrick put the home side in front after 25 minutes after his long range shot was fumbled by Livingston keper Liam Kelly after 25 minutes.

Eleven minutes later Danny Mullen headed the league leaders level for his eleventh goal of the season. Alloa were still creating chances and Dylan Mackin making his full first team debut since coming on loan from Motherwell could not have went closer when his net bound shot beat keeper Kelly and struck the far post before being scooped back from crossing the line at the last minute.

The second half started on the back foot for Alloa and ex Alloa Athletic striker Liam Buchanan pounced to put the visitors ahead after 48 minutes. At this stage in the game the visitors were enjoying their best spell in the match. However as has been shown in recent weeks the Alloa players never know defeat and Dylan Mackin turned inside the box with five remained to clinch a 2-2 draw.

jim goodwin after a draw with livi

We wanted to win the game and I thought in the first half we played well, Livingston score a decent goal, disappointed we didn’t stop the cross but it was a great header from the boy Mullen, can’t take anything away from that, but we just didn’t start in the second half and that was the disappointing thing, it was the same last week at Coatbridge and the week before against Peterhead – so that is something we need to address and get it sorted and we will talk about that during the week. However again, we showed fantastic character, the lads never give in, I don’t know how many times I have said that this season, they never throw the towel in and they keep going right to the last minute and I thought we were worthy of our goal near the end. We put a number of attacking players on the pitch, we gambled a little bit if you like and even when we had got the score back to 2-2 we were determined to go and get the winner, even then we had to be thankful for Calum Waters getting back and clearing a shot of the line and stop Livingston stealing it at the end.

Overall I was relatively pleased, I was delighted with the big man up front, Dylan Mackin, I thought he did great against two really aggressive centre half’s for a young twenty year old I thought he led the line really well, particularly in the first half when he deserved his goal, overall I thought he was excellent. In the first half the quality of balls to him was better which gave him more to time to hold and link the play but I don’t think we got to grips in the second half. We got a lot of joy in the wide areas in the first half with Calum Waters getting wide and forward. But credit to Livingston they work very hard, they are a very fit bunch and they don’t give you a lot of time on the ball – our boys matched them and went toe to toe with them and I don’t think there was a great deal between the teams, I’m really proud of the lads and their effort and we will be ready to go again.