Reaction

“The Wasps” showed great character and fantastic fighting spirit to come back in a game they took to promotion chasing Ayr United and deservedly lead by two goals in the first half, however as we have seen to our detriment this season the game has to be played for at least 90 minutes and sometimes even more. John Grant was given the honour of captaining the side on his 100th first team game for the club and also to mark that on Tuesday 10th February when he will turn twenty one. This was also Brian Carrigan’s home league debut since joining the club from Linlithgow Rose on loan and his class was evident and he also scored two goals to send the Alloa Athletic fans home very happy after the game, which is why manager Allan Maitland brought him to the club. Alloa had many heroes on the day and Stuart Noble was also involved in many of the good things on show. Ayr united never really got started in the first half but this was due to Alloa Athletic players being first for every ball. In the second half Ayr united did get back into the game when David Gormley scored twice, the first goal was a great strike, but the second goal could have been avoided due to a lack of communication. Alloa Athletic heads never went down and Dougie Wilson pulled the Ayr defence all over the place , before sunstitute Greig Spence sent a great pass through for Stuart Noble and the forward was pulled down to give Alloa Athletic the chance to regain their lead with only two minutes left, Brian Carrigan stepped up and made no mistake to record our first victory over Ayr United this season and set us up nicely for next weeks game against Queen’s Park who did exceptionally well against Celtic at Parkhead in the Homecoming Scottish Cup with ex Alloa Athletic player Adam Coakley on target for them. Lets go to Hampden Park and claim our first away victory of the season.

allan maitland after ayr united victory

I thought we were fantastic in the first half, played really well, first to every ball, thought Brian Carrigan and Stuart Noble were magnificent, held the ball up for us and allowed Jinky and Kyle MacAulay to get forward and give great support, however we took a few knocks in the game, Bomber, Carrots, Chris Townsley and Kyle MacAulay were all struggling at half time and later in the game Dougie Wilson also got injured. However you can see why Ayr United are there at the top end of the league, the spirit they showed in the second half was absolutely fantastic, got back into the game at 2-2 and had a fantastic opportunity to go and win, but Ryan Stevenson shot the ball over the bar.

At that stage we could easily have folded and we probably would have previously but I’m pleased we got ourselves into a situation when there was enough bodies up the park to support Stuart Noble and got ourselves a penalty kick, I’m pleased because we deserved to win the first half and probably Ayr United will feel they deserved to win the second half, however I am delighted to win the game, any way we can and very pleased to win the three points, our games at home this season have been exciting games, having previously won 4-3 in local derby against Stirling Albion and today’s game was another fantastic game and hopefully that will be the start to drag us up the league. With five minutes to go we might have settled for a point and a 2-2 draw, we have struggled to score goals this season and two penalty kicks today have helped ease this, there is no doubt with Brian Carrigan and Stuart Noble we have something different up front and I thought Brian Carrigan was absolutely fantastic, I know Dougie Hill won the “Man of the Match” award and I’m pleased for him, John Grant on his 100th game for the club could easily won it, but for me Brian Carrigan was head & shoulders above everyone else as far as Alloa were concerned, although I thought David Gormley played well for Ayr United after he was introduced for Alex Williams in the first half. Ayr United are a good side, we are pleased to win but now we have to do the same thing next week against Queen’s Park. A good game of football for everybody, what a difference it is to play when the wind is not blowing a gale like last week, we are very pleased a good day for us.