Reaction

At the start of this season all at Alloa Athletic knew the challenge ahead was going to be one of the most difficult in front of them, with Rangers, Hibs and Hearts now playing in the same SPFL Championship as “The Wasps”, however after now completing the first round of matches neither of the three sides will be looking forward to facing Barry Smith’s team again after three outstanding matches – a 2-1 victory over Hibernian, a 1-1 draw against Rangers when a late equaliser denied “The Wasps” full points, while Hearts snatched all three points with a late deflected winning goal today. Hearts came to the Indodrill Stadium today, unbeaten in the league and looking to extend their lead at the top of the division, however an outstanding performance from Alloa Athletic limited the Hearts team to few chances and indeed it was Barry Smith’s side who looked the more likely to win the game by creating the best chances in the game.

After frustrating Hearts and looking to get forward Graeme Holmes put Kevin Cawley through on goal but Neil Alexander got down to block his advance. In the second half Kevin Cawley had his shot blocked but the rebound fell to Ryan McCord, but his shot was inches wide of the far post with a clear shot on goals.

Substitute Eddie Ferns then beat the Hearts offside trap and ran clear on goal, however his shot clipped the post and nestled into the top corner of the side netting. On this display the Alloa Athletic players should be proud of their performance and look forward to more positive displays in the league this season which will move them back up the table.

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barry smith after hearts disappointment

I think we should focus on the boys performance for me they deserved to win the game for me, that’s my opinion, and as manager I am allowed that opinion, they put so much effort and enthusiasm and energy into that game and deserved so much more out of it, cause I don’t think Hearts created much and we have created the better chances in the game, by far.

We set out our team to frustrate Hearts, which we did, and we had some great performances today and to come away with nothing is hugely disappointing because of the way we played and the way we have got them playing – our players should take a lot of credit for the way the game was played today. Our team is part time, we train two nights a week and we are playing against a full time side, Robbie has got them in extra sessions – could you tell the difference there today? I don’t think so.

That’s my opinion and I hope people seen it the same way, our energy levels were excellent.

We will build on that performance, we will definitely build on that performance, next week we will face Cowdenbeath and if we show that level of performance then there is no reason why we cannot go and win the game, but we must make sure we get that same level of performance and in fairness to the boys over the opening nine games of the season in the league, the boys have given tremendous effort, unfortunately sometimes it just hasn’t went our way. I think now having played all the sides in the league the boys can look back and know we have not been over powered by any team, even in the games which we have lost, I certainly see no reason why we cannot go on an unbeaten run having now competed at a good level against the other sides.