Reaction

Alloa Athletic fought out a 1-1 draw at Central Park against Danny Lennon’s Cowdenbeath side. Cowdenbeath had the best of the first half which turned early in the game when Stuart Noble had to leave the find with a suspected dislocation to his shoulder, with Stuart Noble off and Brian Carrigan missing the game through illness, “The Wasps” missed their presence up front. Gareth Wardlaw scored an excellent goal for the home side after half an hour, but Alloa came back to equalise through Andy Scott just before half-time. Alloa opened more brightly in the second period but in the end a draw was a fair result, Cowdenbeath did end the gamestrongly but David Crawford stood firm in the Alloa goals. After the match, Alloa trialist, Mark Gilhaney signed for the club, while Stuart Noble’s injury might not be as bad as feared and will be given every opportunity for Tuesday nights game against Dundee United.

Alloa Athletic                                     Cowdenbeath
1 David Crawford                              1 Trialist – Artus Vaiculis
2 David McClune                               2 Mark Baxter
3 Marc McCafferty                            3 Kenny Adamson
4 Scot Buist                                       4 Craig Winter
5 Scott Walker                                  5 Joe Mbu
6 John Grant                                      6 Dene Droudge
7 Gary Carroll                                    7 Brian Fairbairn
8 Mark Brown Bkd 45m                    8 John Dempster
9 Andy Scott                                      9 Gareth Wardlaw
10 Scott Agnew                                 10 Jon Robertson
11 Stuart Noble                                 11 Jay Stein Bkd 52m

12 Hugh Kerr (11) 10 mins                   12 Paul McQuade (7) 75m
14 Trialist – Mark Gilhaney (7) 71 mins 14 Marek Tomana (8) 84m
15 Ross Philp                                        15 Scott McBride
16 Brown Ferguson                               16 Scott Linton

GK Stephen Hall                                    GK Kris Bower
Referee : Craig Chaleston Asst: Ross Haswell & John Gilmour

CROWD – 365

0 – 1 Gareth Wardlaw (30 mins)
1 – 1 Andy Scott (41 mins)

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allan maitland after central park draw

I think today a point was probably the most we deserved from the game, the first half of the game was all about Cowdenbeath, I thought they were sharper than us, they were first to every ball, how much of that was down to Stuart Noble’s early injury I don’t know, but after that we couldn’t hold the ball up and I think that was a factor. Obviously with Brian Carrigan not being available, being not well today, with him not playing and Stuart Noble getting injured, we ended up with two runners on the park and neither two of them are adept at holding the ball in, that was a blow to us and in disrupted the way we intended to play the game, with nobody up the park to hold on to the ball, but during that period I thought Cowdenbeath were well worthy of at least one goal, to get back in the game just before half-time was a bonus, to get the players in at half-time for a rollicking for how they played in the first half was important. In the second half I thought we were miles better, controlled a lot of the game but never really created one clear cut chance. That’s when not having Brian Carrigan and Stuart Noble available we missed their craft, plenty of endeavour but not enough quality to win. Mark Gilhaney came on, and he gave us something a wee bit different, Gary Carroll although taken off, it was only tactical to let us try something else, but it was not our best day. I thought it was strange, the referee decided not to give a foul when Hugh Kerr was flattened by their goalkeeper, but these things happen, I thought the referee was fine, they scored a magnificent goal but also we scored a good goal as well, we are pleased to get a point in a game we haven’t played well and my final thought is last season we would have lost a game like this, there is a bit more steel about us but we can still do a lot better, it was a decent point on a day when we didn’t play well. Mark Gilhaney has now signed for us, the paperwork completed this afternoon to bring him to the club and he will be available for Tuesday night, Brown Ferguson is another step closer to getting involved again, Stuart Noble’s injury, initially it was feared to be a dislocation but the pain appears to be easing off a bit, a jar on his shoulder and we will give him every opportunity for Tuesday night he is so important to the team.