Reaction

“The Wasps” defeated Arbroath 2-1 at Recreation Park on Saturday, which moved the club of the bottom of the league and swapping places with John McGlashan’s side. Arbroath had the best of the first half and went ahead when Scott Gates crossed for David McGowan who had only signed for Arbroath on loan from Clyde that morning to score on his debut. However in the second half Alloa gradually began to get the upper hand. The equaliser came when Pat Scullion got to the bye line and crossed for Kyle MacAulay to score his third goal of the season. Alloa pushed forward looking for victory and Fraser Forrest scored a stunning winner, volleying home an Andy Scott cross for the match winner. Alloa might have had, which looked a stone wall penalty later in the game but the referee wasn’t interested.

allan maitland after arbroath victory

We are a team at the bottom of the league struggling with confidence and not playing well, we were looking for that first goal to give us a wee break, although there wasn’t much in the game, I thought Arbroath were better than us in the beginning of the game and deserved their lead, but the goal was just systematic of the mistakes we are making, getting caught on the ball on the half way line and not defending it properly.

I felt fortunate at half time to be only one down, and obviously made a change at half time, I didn’t think we held the ball up at all up front and changed that, we obviously had a problem at right back with Steven McKeown, David McClune and Scot Buist all injured we played Jamie Hay there, but that didn’t work, so that was my responsibility , but the changes definitely helped – Fraser coming on helped us, Francis Kelly struggled but again I made the change bringing on Graeme Brown for the final part of the game and he started playing like a centre forward should do, but I have to say Andy Scott and Kyle MacAulay made a big difference today, holding the ball up and playing the ball at the correct end of the park, Pat Scullion did fantastically well for us, setting up the first goal, while the second goal by Fraser Forrest was just unbelievable, I have never seen him do that , I fact I was sure he must of stooped down to header the thing, not volley it, it was a great goal and one we really needed. We needed a result, and I would have taken any type of victory today in the position we are just now, but I’m sure our second half performance merited the victory, although I’m sure Arbroath will feel aggrieved but for us all that matters is us starting to win games, so very pleased with that. I was pleased for Pat Scullion to win the man of the match award as well he has shown in the last couple of games that he is getting back to form that we know he is capable of, he played really well today, as did Andy Scott and Kyle MacAulay who could have contested the decision but overall much, much better.

We play Peterhead next week, it will be a difficult game but I’m hoping to get some players back from injury which should help – however Fraser Forrest took a knock on his knee which looks like he will be doubtful, we want to get back to a settled side which always help teams. What is important is that we take the confidence from today’s result into next weeks game and keep encouraging the players, talking about the positives from the game rather than talking too much about the first half of the game. We still do not have enough confidence in our play to take touches and look up and play passes, what we have to do is get the game played at their end of the park and go and support each other as quickly as possible. Not until you get ahead in games and score a second goal you might then settle down and play and prove how good we can be, but at the moment we don’t have that luxury. I expect Scot Buist and David McClune to be available for next Saturday, Jamie Stevenson might be available, but Steven McKeown and Dougie Wilson will be struggling.