Reaction

Yet again Alloa Athletic look back on a game and wonder why they did not take something out of it. A lack of fire power up front along with a defence which is still handing out presents. It is hard not to be frustrated in watching a game where the opposition were no better, however they did score a vital goal, in a game which early on looked like the first goal could be the winner. We still have some very important games left this season to consolidate our position in the league, but we must start creating our own luck and stop waiting for it to be presented to us, Brechin defended stoutly and blocked any efforts we threw at them late in the second half, with Jon Seeley and Barry Smith outstanding. No one could fault Alloa’s effort at Glebe Park but yet again it is another game which we did not deserve to lose, but did.

allan maitland at glebe park

Today we played against a good Brechin City side in a game there was nothing between the sides whatsoever, the two teams cancelled each other out playing very similar systems, Brechin had one shot at goal which our goalkeeper made a save from and we had a shot at goal in the first half which Craig Nelson had to pull of a good save, I thought the two teams competed very well without creating much in the game and we lost the game in what can only be described as a shocking goal. Defensively from our point of view whether it is the goalkeepers fault, Dougie Hill’s fault or Scot Buist, who ever, its terrible, what you do is you clear your lines and ask questions later and we didn’t do that, we allowed ourselves to get into a situation where there was no room for error and Rory McAllister sticks a toe in and scores his goal. We had handled McAllister really well today, so defensively we have been excellent, but for one lapse in the game, it has cost us dearly. From our point of view I don’t think we created enough chances to win but I would say exactly the same about Brechin City, from that point of view I think we deserved something from the game, probably haven’t done enough to win the game but we certainly didn’t deserve to lose the game either. When we had opportunities to create things, we didn’t have that quality from the edge of the box to create that opportunity, Brian Carrigan not playing today from the start due to his injury last Saturday probably didn’t help us, but even allowing for that we have battled really hard for 89 minutes, not 90 minutes, we did have that one lapse of concentration which cost us dear. On the other hand I felt we had two fantastic penalty claims, I understand people will throw themselves down to block the ball, just like John Terry does, but if you are in your penalty box and you punch the ball with both hands that must be a penalty kick in my book and when you have Jinky (Dougie Wilson) who is the smallest guy in the team, waiting at the back post and a player barges him in the back, that again is a penalty kick. So I’m disappointed with that aspect of it, but it is not the referee’s fault we lost the game, it is our fault, of course I’m disappointed not to take something from the game. The game was played in good spirit without creating many chances and we are disappointed to lose.