Reaction

Alloa manager Allan Maitland was relieved to get back to winning ways after a period when the club had not won a game since the 12th September against Stirling Albion, however against Clyde, especially in the first half the team was excellent and produced some of their best football for a while. Ex Clyde player Brian Carrigan was again on target against his old side putting Alloa ahead after 14 minutes and was again unfortunate when he stuck a 25 yard free kick against the crossbar. In a first half which Alloa dominated the only thing that was missing was more goals, Brown Ferguson headed against a post and Andy Scott had a goal chalked off. In the second half the tempo dropped and Clyde gradually came into the game, Alloa were playing a little deeper and with not scoring that second goal, Clyde were still in the game, however to be honest David Crawford had an easy day in the Alloa goal. The second and dessisive goal game only three minutes from the end when Brown Ferguson’s initial header came back of the crossbar and Stuart Noble headed the rebound into the net. This put a fairer look to the scoreline and will give the side confidence going into next Saturday’s local derby against Stirling Albion, indeed a victory over Allan Moore’s side would leave the Wasps only three points from the top of the division.

allan maitland after clyde victory

I am obviously relieved first and foremost to win the game, before the game I was saying to the players that we are almost back to the same team that started the season, with Brian Carrigan and Stuart Noble up the park and the back four and goal keeper the same along with the two centre midfield players. I thought defensively we looked a lot more solid which is the foundation of anything but in the first half I thought we played really, really well and should have went in at half time more than one nothing up, had plenty of chances, their goalkeeper played well, we hit the post, Brian Carrigan hit the cross bar, obviously I don’t think our goal keeper, David Crawford, had a save to make. In the second half I have got to say Clyde pressed the game very well and because we haven’t won for six weeks we started sitting in too deep and encouraged them to come, they had corner kicks and free kicks, which I though were defended reasonably well I have to say, but on a day like that anything can happen and a shot out of nothing could just take a deflection but again our goal keeper never had a save to make and I though we had enough good balls going into the box to score the second goal. Brown Ferguson had a great chance when he shot and he probably should have squared it but he was telling me he was that tired by the time he got there he couldn’t do anything else. Obviously, the second goal, albeit very late gave the game in my impression a better reflection and fairer reflection despite the pressure we were under in the second half I felt the 2-0 was a fair reflection on the game. The biggest difference this week was having strikers to score the goals. Brian Carrigan, who I thought was excellent and Stuart Noble who again I thought was excellent, were in there and it was these players that scored the goals. For six weeks we have hardly scored a goal and our strikers have struggled in that period but today I thought the two of them were a threat. Alan Lithgow played well for Clyde but even despite that we managed to get good chances and the front two played really well. I think there was a spell in the second half when Clyde were putting us under a lot of pressure but they had no end product but we needed that second goal which made a world of difference and everybody can relax and start enjoying their football again. It was a very much needed win because six games in this league is a long time without a win but I felt in the last few weeks, especially against Brechin , we had done well enough to take more than the points we have collected from the games. We are obviously very pleased and delighted to have won today. We are all criticising referees and today I thought the referee tried to let the game flow as much as he possibly could, restricted yellow cards and I thought he was excellent, so it’s only fair if we are going to knock them we give them praise when it’s due.