Reaction

A last gasp penalty winner for promotion favourites Dundee was a cruel end to a game “The Wasps” certainly deserved a point. Indeed having weathered strong Dundee pressure in the opening 20 minutes of the match, it was Paul Hartley’s team who should have gone ahead, Andy Kirk crossed for Ryan McCord to time a great run into the box, but his header was tipped to safety by the home keeper. At this stage of the game Alloa were dominent and James Creaney went close with long range effort and then the Dundee defender, Iain Davidson was caught trying to play the ball out of play at the byeline and the alert Declan McManus robbed him and passing inside to Andy Kirk but his goal bound shot was deflected over for a corner. In the second period Dundee did come back into the game and Scott Bain produced a great save from Martin Boyle, “The Wasps” were sitting deeper but looked in no danger, until the penalty decission two minutes into stoppage time robbed them of a deserved point.

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managers at dens park

Our attitude and commitment were tremendous but the penalty at the end just killed us, I’m gutted for the players. The players work ethic towards today’s game was first class,  I can talk about tactics but it is the players, the quality we have, their attitude at not wanting to get beat was first class. Coming away from home we know it is always going to be difficult, Dundee are the favourites, they have a good squad of players, we came here with a game plan to frustrate them in the first twenty minutes and I think we were doing something right when you hear the home supporters booing their players off the pitch at half-time!

 

We knew they would come at us in the second half, we withstood the pressure, our defenders were great, the work ethic by the players was terrific – I’m proud of my players today. I think we will be ok in this division, we are new in the league, we are a wee bit unknown – we have now ran Dundee close twice already this season, if we can play like that every week I think we will have a good season, I know what I get from my players, I know what I get from them – but I am a bit gutted for them today, the way they played I’m proud of them. What we have being trying to do in training, is we work close in shapes that suits us – against Dundee in the Ramsdens Cup in the opening game of the season we played in a different shape, today we played more in a style of play the players have been used to over the past two seasons, it did work and the players looked happy in that system, we were flexible and were able to revert back to match up against them if it wasn’t working, we were under pressure in the second half and Scott Bain pulled off a fantastic save but other than that he had very little to do and that’s good at a place like this. We will need to defend as a team at times over this whole season.

 

Next week we will take positives into the Cowdenbeath game at home which is one of our “Bread and Butter” fixtures this season – we are at home, I have always said that home form will be important, if we do well at home, we will then give ourselves a chance.

Paul Hartley, Alloa Athletic FC Manager

The main thing today was to get a win, but full credit to Paul Hartley and his players, it was another tough game they gave us, they made it equally as difficult in the Ramsdens Cup – a part time outfit, well organised who made it very difficult for us. We never really created a great deal, I still have a few players getting used to each other and I have to realise everybody’s gunning for us, so to get the win, it was a stonewall penalty kick and the game lasts ninety minutes so as well as we played in the first period, during the first twenty minutes, then we let it go, but came back strong in the second half, made the changes that probably made the difference – Martin Boyle is pretty direct, wee Jamie Reid came on along with Stephen Doris physical presence it caused a problem, he managed to win the penalty and Kevin McBride converted it well. Happy just to get the three points, and it’s a clean sheet, my goalkeeper made a great save in the first half and if that had went the other way it might have been a one goal game – just happy to pick up the three points and get some points on the board.

John Brown, Dundee FC, Manager