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Barneyw

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    Alloa Athletic

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  1. Rarely plays and gets sent off when he does. Looked like he could do well at CB in his first few appearances but he hasn’t had a chance to play there since. When he does play it’s in CM and it’s hard to look good playing in midfield in a team as poor as we are this season.
  2. I stayed out of most of the close season discussion, the negativity towards the club was tedious and the predictable reaction to Ferguson’s appointment only exacerbated this. That said, the man is something of a poison on the club at the minute - and the justified vitriol of the supporters is testament to this. We’ve disagreed about managers in the past, but it’s been a while since there’s been such a fear of damage to the club - the feeling around the club just now is markedly different to anything in the previous decade. Battling for a point on Saturday was a tiny slither of light in what has been a bleak start to the season, to then get rid of Parry in this fashion is another kick in the guts - inevitable as it was. It was a pleasure to watch him play for Alloa, without doubt the best Alloa goalkeeper I’ve ever seen apart from Bain, and still very likely the best part-time keeper in the country. Watching QP’s goal again this week knowing that Parry was sitting in the stands is increasingly difficult. I hope he knows how he was appreciated by the fans and the club. When Ferguson was appointed I had too many conversations with fans of his side of the OF, who couldn’t understand why we (lowly Alloa fans) weren’t over the moon to be blessed with a divine OF presence. Ferguson’s decision making and disregard of players who have served Alloa well stinks of the same ignorance. We have too much quality still in the squad to be in relegation danger this season, in the end we will be okay. Either way, I can’t help but feel that this season will be characterised by that bad feeling around the club - and there’s an obvious reason for that.
  3. Williamson away on loan. Strange one based on what we seen on Tuesday [emoji848]
  4. I’m not sure anybody watching from an Alloa perspective last night would have been laughing much. Interested to see how we get on on Saturday. I don’t hold out much hope of a result but any kind of improvement will be very welcome. Of course we need to give the players some time to work each other out and get playing in a system. I thought we really missed Trouten (or a Trouten type) last night to link the play through the lines. Even in the first half when we had a lot of the ball, it very rarely went beyond the Cowden midfield on the deck.
  5. Not much of a wow factor to it, but not overly disappointed either. Although it is good to see what other fans think, we’ve seen enough players that have been written off by P&B do a really good job for us, to resist getting too up or down before watching them. From the guys in it looks like there’s new options in defence, midfield and attack- which is refreshing. We knew that we were facing a rebuild this summer, which always come with an element of risk/trepidation. Importantly it looks as though we’ve now got options in defence, which will hopefully allow us to play recognised centre halfs and let Taggs loose at RB again, something that we sorely missed last season. It’s also good to have retained Andy Graham whilst bringing in a guy like Durnan for cover, between those two, Jamieson and Howie, that’s more cover than we’ve had in a while, as well as cover in both full back positions.
  6. What does Grant do tonight then? Hetherington straight back in and Robbo back in defence? I hope not, Robbo’s performance on Saturday merits him staying in the midfield, it just depends whether Grant wants to keep Lynch in at RB or not. Although either way I can’t see Hetherington being left out. Plenty of encouragement from our earlier games against Dundee this season. We were well worth a point in the first game and could easily have taken 3. The game at Dens we were second best, but not by much and a few decisions really hampered us in the second half.
  7. Agree that it’ll be hard to pick a POTY this season. Liam Dick and Stevie H have probably been most consistent. I think Cawley has really stepped up a few times this season when we’ve needed him - It didn’t always lead to points on the board but feel like he gave us a fighting chance in some games (Hearts at home, Dunfermline away) as well as the winner at home against QoS. Lots of football still to go though.
  8. Stayed away from the PG debate on here for the most part. If we were still in the recs we wouldn’t feel the need to get into a debate every time somebody on the terrace shouted “get to f*ck Grant”, but this medium encourages everyone to take the criticism more seriously and offer retort. There is a certain achievement limit for part-time clubs in Scotland. It is almost impossible to finish above the bottom half of the championship given the resource gap - as it happens for almost a decade now we have been at or around that limit, and it’s not a stretch to say that Paddy Connolly has been instrumental in that success. A guy that has never let Alloa down and allowed us to become the club that we now are, thanks - in no small part - to his continuum of the standards set during the Hartley revolution. To question his effort and application is, IMO, wide of the mark. On Grant himself, I would be willing to give him a crack at bringing us back up next year. It is worth remembering that the last time we came up from League 1, we were in a really bad position early in the season, and loads of fans wanted JG gone - some of those calls were because he wouldn’t start Adam Martin, which is even more ridiculous with hindsight. Goodwin, given time, was able to take us from a terrible position and steer us to promotion before keeping us up the following season. I don’t see any reason why Grant couldn’t apply the learnings from this season and make us competitive next season. With that said, his shifting of Hetherington to accommodate Ray Grant is very frustrating, and isn’t helping our performances or his case with the fans. Interested to see what he does with them both between now and the end of the season.
  9. Even when we were in front today there was a feeling that we were never quite in control - although neither were Raith - and I think it was obvious that Hetherington being stuck out wide was the reason for that. Grant just doesn’t have the same ability to grab hold of the ball and drive us forward. Really frustrating that we didn’t change it somehow in the middle of second half, considering we’d hardly kicked it since half time and Raith had taken control. Sick and tired of watching us come undone in the same manner every week.
  10. I’d like to see us stick with three at the back today, Taggart Graham and Dick, Robbo and Hetherington as wing backs. The rest of the team pretty much takes care of itself unless we try and get Scougall in, but i think Murray came into the game quite well last week and it’d be harsh to drop him
  11. Yeeha [emoji3] Great to have Taggart back, a horrible game of football but a vital 3 points
  12. Tidy player, plays every week alongside Steven Hetherington at the base of the midfield. It’s maybe hard to give an overall verdict due to our poor form this season, we are leaking a lot of goals and I guess some of the responsibility has to be on the defensive midfielders to stop that. Regardless of that though, he’s a classy footballer and often the one to put his foot on the ball and get us playing.
  13. It’s getting harder and harder to keep any kind of positivity. Today might have knocked the very last of mine out of me. We’ve now conceded 2 or more goals in 9 of our 13 league games this season, unless that trend changes dramatically then our only hope of survival is a total collapse from Arbroath. We all highlighted the need to strengthen in attack - and rightly so - but it’s been a while since we’ve seen an Alloa team lose so many pathetic goals and it’s hard to watch. Even Jamieson who hasn’t done a hole lot wrong gave us a bit of a sucker punch today, with that backheel that led to the penalty. Football is one of the few things to still get excited about just now and I’m trying not to be too downbeat, but we’ve all been here before and we know how this goes.
  14. I ended up watching the Ayr game last week since ours was off. They knocked it about well and Dunfermline didn’t give them much trouble, if anything Ayr were just missing somebody up top (a ridiculous thing to say when they started Zanatta and had Moffat on the bench). Then they go and sign Wright from Bohemians through the week, who by chance i’ve seen play 4 or 5 times and is a cracking player. Doesn’t bode particularly well. Hopefully Dick and Trouten are back for Saturday, not sure about Taggart? But he’d be a massive boost as well if fit. Visions of Cameron scoring and then shhhhing the empty terrace.
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