Reaction

A disappointing result against a hugely improved Rangers side, after going behind early in the game for the 2nd week, “The Wasps” roared back with a goal which would have not looked out of place at the top level of the game, Michael Chopra showing his great ability and desire to get back among the goals. The loss of the penalty, so soon after drawing level was a blow from which the visitors took get heart and increased their lead before half-time, with two more goals. To their credit the Alloa players never gave up but were limited to half chances, Aron Lynas unfortunate not being able to connect, as the ball slipped agonisingly past him.

DANNY LENNON AFTER RANGERS GAME

It has been a very difficult start from us, we have met two of the teams who competed in last season’s play off’s in the two opening SPFL Championship games of the season, what we have seen is in those two games we haven’t given ourselves the best opportunities in starting the games conceding very early in both games but what we have done is we have responded fantastically and got ourselves back in the game today with a fantastic goal, Michael shows the qualities why we all love him, but what we failed to do after that was give ourselves any opportunity to build on this and get back into the game by then losing a penalty kick, so that was very disappointing against a very much improving quality Rangers side, I thought they then dictated the game in terms of good quality possession they were then able to negate anything we tried to create through our creative players by pinning our players back into areas we did not want them to be and stopped us being a threat going forward. What we have to do is be prepared to go back and do the ugly side of the game when required, Rangers did that and we need to learn from that. We need to stop runs, stop balls from coming into the box and we need to defend the box better that’s where we are at this moment in time. In the second half we did set up differently, flattening out and we went for damage limitation because I feared for the way the game was going and Rangers were playing and we really could have been on the end of a heavier defeat, even worse than what it was, that was important.

I always believe when I have to do that, I am taking away the qualities and the belief I have in my group of players and as I said last week – we are part-time and every night that we do have the players in they do give their utmost in terms of being at their full-time job then having to come in, they do absolutely everything to do their best and I admire them for that, but we need to take that from the training and make it count in every single game.

We now move on to the Elgin City Petrofac Cup tie and Elgin City have started the season particularly well and what we have to do is get over the disappointment of the Rangers game very quickly and learn what it is going to take to compete in this league. Rangers gave a top drawer all round performance, how quickly they moved the ball but what really impressed me the most about them today was when they were without possession of the ball how quickly they worked collectively to get it back and if we can take anything from that , that is something I would like us to learn from.

We will look to get our season kick started against Elgin City, I have spoken about the difficult start we have had to the season but we know there is room for improvement and once again the players are honest enough and we have had a good honest open discussion so everyone knows where we stand and like anything they are brought to this football club with the qualities and ability which they have but they need to fit into the system that I am looking for at the club and the quicker they believe that ,then the quicker we can kick start the season.