In the Ladbrokes Championship Play-Off Final 1st Leg played at The Indodrill Stadium on Wednesday night, “The Wasps” were frustrated and disappointed with the result, going down 1-0 to a spectacular winner which gave the visitors, Dumbarton, something to hang onto which the defended for their life.

jim goodwin after 1st leg advantage goes to dumbarton

Frustrated with the result tonight, would be the best word to sum up my feelings after the match, the boys did everything that we has asked of them, to go and play football, play the ball out from the back, play through the different thirds of the pitch we did all that and in the opening five minutes we were camped in the Dumbarton half and they get a breakaway and their first shot of the game goes in the top corner, so it was hard to take at the time but the reaction of the players was excellent. They kept on doing the right things, they never panicked and were very patient in the build up, we just couldn’t break them down, and that was the most frustrating thing about it.

Dumbarton are very good at being compact, sitting deep and defending the box well and I thought they done that well, it is difficult we just need to keep going and “Keep Believing” that we can get back in the game, we will go to Dumbarton with the same mindset that we will still try to play football the way we think it should be played and hopefully get a break of the ball in the box because we had some good opportunities tonight – Jordan Kirkpatrick forced their keeper to make a great save in the first half when he tips to ball onto the post and later Callum Smith  had two or three good opportunities, one on one chances where I have to give credit to Craig Barr who slipped back in and got a very good block and then the second one the keeper makes a good save so on another night we would have scored at least one goal but unfortunately tonight we couldn’t quite do that.

At the goal the TV evidence suggests the ball went out of play but I was right there and it was an obvious decision in my opinion, I’m not one for publically disagreeing with referees but it is difficult when you have the fourth official standing in the same position as me, in fairness to the linesman, I think “Flanny” is in the way of the ball but it was clearly out of play and its one of these ones if you are unsure you go the way of the defender but six or seven seconds after that the ball drops to Stuart Carswell who was an ex teammate of mine, I know I will not hear the end of that one, but I think he has two shots in his whole career and has two goals, so it’s incredible  it was a hell of a strike but that’s how football goes – sometimes you are better being lucky that good.

Tonight I just wanted the lads to go out and play the way they had all season, I would like to see the possession stats and shots on goal, I can’t remember Neil Parry having much to do and I think their goalkeeper was the busier of the two keepers, I think we dominated possession of the ball I think in was 70/30 or something, the only thing that was missing was a goal. We will go away analysis the game again but I don’t expect anything different from Dumbarton, they get an early goal, sit in and grind out results, fair play to them they are good at it but I would rather my team go about business in the way we did and try and play football in the correct manner and hopefully we can get a goal on Sunday then Dumbarton will need to come out to try and win the game but at the moment I expect them to have a similar game plan to what they had tonight for the last eighty minutes of the game.

Our aim at the start of this season was to get promoted and we still have a chance to do that, last night’s 2-0 victory over Raith Rovers in the Championship Play-Off Semi-Final 1st Leg puts us in a good position, but there is still a lot of football still to be played, the tie is far from over yet.

Raith Rovers, who would have been disappointed that they did not win the League One Championship on Saturday when “The Wasps” held them to a 0-0 draw, only made the one change to their team Ross Matthews starting in stead of Dario Zanatta. The Alloa Athletic team had three changes, returning to the starting line up were Stevie Hetherington, Iain Flannigan and Jamie McCart as Jim Goodwin set about winning the first leg tie. The opening goal in these games is always important and Raith keeper Graeme Smith will not want to look back at the highlights as he attempted clear the ball and was robbed by the alert Ross Stewart who took the opportunity to open the scoring.

Alloa Athletic were then suffer a set back when their recently voted “Player of the Year” Stevie Hetherington suffered what appears to be medial ligament damage and his season was over.

Raith Rovers best effort of the evening came after 55 minutes when Jason Thomson’s effort climbed over the bar as they looked to get into the game.

Three minutes later Alloa increased their lead after great work by Kevin Cawley, who passed inside for Iain Flannigan to score his ninth goal of the season.

Alloa were looking to increase their lead and Graeme Smith after his initial mistake for the opening goal, redeemed himself in the second half to keep the scoreline at only 2-0.

jim goodwin after 2-0 victory in first playoff leg

From start to finish I thought we were excellent tonight, it was a very professional performance, and we defended really well and looked particularly dangerous going forward. The only thing I could be critical of is one thing, we could have been three or four nil up to be honest with you, I think their keeper has made a couple of good saves in the second half, but if you had offered me 2-0 before the game I would have bitten your hand off.

It puts us in a great position but I will be saying the exact same thing as every manager does in the Play-Off’s -“ Its Only Half-Time”. A two nil lead is a dodgy lead, at 2-0 ahead we are in a good position, much better than being two down, but I am aware of the fact that if Raith Rovers get an early goal on Saturday “Its game on again”.

So we know on Saturday we will need to be disciplined, we will set up to be hard to beat obviously, and that’s two clean sheets in back to back games against Raith Rovers which I don’t think many teams have did that against them this season. There were some great individual performances tonight but I don’t want to name names because collectively as a unit we looked solid, so it is fair to say I am really pleased.

Raith Rovers will be disappointed after the weekend and not having won the league it is difficult to pick yourself up after that disappointment but I just thought at 2-0 the message to the boys on the park was not to just be happy with 2-0, particularly when they went down to ten men I felt they were there to be got at. We did try, we had a couple of half chances, Kevin Cawley hit one and the keeper made a good save, Jon Robertson hit a shot which was deflected and the keeper managed to save it with his leg, Callum Crane broke well into the box but didn’t get his shot away and there were other opportunities we could have put the game to bed but as it stands right now we are in a good position but Raith Rovers are a very good side with dangerous players in their forward areas and we will need to make sure our concentration levels are the same on Saturday as they were tonight.

Unfortunately Stevie Hetherington looks like he has picked up a medial ligament injury and likely to be out for next six weeks before he is back jogging, really disappointed for Stevie, he has been our “Player of the Year this Season” and consistency wise he has been excellent, so he is a big loss to us there is no doubt of that but at the same time Jon Robertson comes in and slots in brilliantly, that is the luxury I have as manager we have put a great squad together and at times like this when you lose players like Stevie Hetherington and PJ Crossan, we still have players who can come in and fill the gaps and we don’t look any lesser a team, so I am privileged to be in that position.