One game in the league tomorrow and an important one for both Alloa and Berwick. Its only 3 weeks since the original game was abandoned due to fog with Alloa set to go top of the league but we find ourselves in a very different position now with a huge slump that nobody could have predicted. We need to get on back on track and must get a victory in this match.

Berwick were probably delighted to see the original match abandoned with them a goal (and it should have been more) and man down, all their subs used and looking very ragged. They now get a second chance from scratch and with Alloa on a poor run. Berwick are in a precarious position but a win tomorrow closes the gap on Ayr to just 5 points so they have plenty of hope yet.

Brian Fairbairn played as a sub for us in the original game and will now play for Berwick tomorrow - how likely is it that he finally gets his first goal of the season??

Aye massive game tomorrow, Sady yet to win away from home and will be in need of something special to change that tomorrow.

But a couple of spirited perfomances over the Xmas Period with Beating Raith on Boxing day & the Second half mini revival againest Airdrie after an awful opening 30mins to the game that saw us buried without a trace shows theres still fight in the camp. Wasn't at the game againest Brechin but 2-0 down with 5mins to go and to get a point just shows that the lads aint given up the ghost yet !! ( I'm erasing the 4-0 drubbing off Ayr in the New year completely from my mind)

Diack on a canny run of late 4 in his last 4.

Couldn't agree more with the abandoned game, lucky to get another crack of the whip hopefully take full advantage & capitalise on Alloa's recent slump !!!

Heart Prediction... 1-0 to the Dream Team Diack scrambles in a 94th min winner and moves us within 5 pts
Head Prediction 3-0 to Alloa...Ayr Revisited

Quite possibly if he plays like he did last saturday against Brechin, he looked really lively I was impressed and I wasn't the only one as he picked up the sponsors man of the match.

I fancy now is as good a time as any to be playing Alloa, as their form has nosedived of late. That coupled with them being aggreived at being deprived of a certain 3pts in the abandoned game may give us the psychological edge in this match. This is Alloa's big chance to stop the rot, but if they get the jitters & Berwick win this one it will be interesting to see how the Wasps fair in their subsequent few games. It's also an opportunity to see what effect (if any) Michael Renwick's remarks on almost accepting our relegation will have on the players. Here's hoping that tomorrow, we can take advantage of every factor in our favour in the quest for division 2 survival.

I would be surprised TBH. Fairbairn is a one trick pony. Once the defender has seen what he's got there is nothing else. We were encouraged by him preseason but ultimately he turned out to be crap.

Well the one trick pony must have learned about 10 new tricks.

Guessing Fairbairn was gash for Alloa?

Indeed....

2-1 Fairbairn and Diack.

A Berwick win amid great delight for Comical Ali.

I wouldnt personally say he was gash for us, he just couldnt force his way into the team. Dougie Wilson's form meant he had no chance of getting a game at right midfield and up front the other strikers were bringing more of a goal threat. Made sense for him to move on and get a regular game.

I would be afraid one trick would be enough to score against us at the moment . Hopefully we keep the ball on the ground and play our football again but a win of any sort would be great, we need 3 points to get things going again and regain the confidence.

Given how hot and cold Berwick have been recently, I could see just about anything happening apart from a draw tomorrow. If the fighting side who battled back against Brechin/ Airdrie and beat Raith are playing then we'll be fine. But if the timid team from the first half of the Brechin/ Airdrie games that lost at Ayr are playing, then we've no chance.

Hope Gary O' is fit for this one, we need to be steady here. Good luck to the young lads running around, but we'll need to stay solid.



Given Bolo scored in the game that never was, there's certainly a danger. Fairbairn had a great debut (like the Falkirk laddie the previous week), he knew exactly where to be and what to do, an assured debut. Funny for us to have a couple of ex Alloa players and not the other way round, given the number who have made the journey from Berwick to Clackmannanshire over the years.

Just hope we can see the whole pitch this time

Is Thomo suspended for this one? If he is he'll be a big miss. Been our most consistent player all season.

the form were in ill go 1 or 2-0 to berwick

Fairbairn had one really good game for us against Stirling where he set up 4 goals. Apart from that, he flatters to deceive, is lazy and I agree with bsd, he is a one trick pony.

Yes he is, and you're right he will be a very big miss.

Is Lewis Coult from Alloa aswell?

After his good debut last week, I decided to search him to sign him on FM, but he was in Alloa Reserves (19 Year old) with a 35k price tag!! He looked quite good on that too!

Yeah, Crouchy played for us last season from January onwards. Unfortunately without scoring a goal meaning that we never got the promised "robotics" celebration from him, it was left to Bolo to strutt his funky stuff in the final game of the season instead.

I'm not quite so down on Fairy as some of the Alloa fans, I thought was OK for us albeit without actually doing too much of note.

So, goals from Bolo, Crouchy and Fairy on Saturday?

Of the 3 Bolo was by far the best striker. At least he scored when we played him up front.

Sorry but Coult was pish with us. As I said Fairbairn looked good at Oban and in preseason games. When it came to playing every week he was found out. Might do a job for Berwick in the 3rd division though

And Little and Greenhill?? We could be a real thrashing from the old boys select

All this talk of slagging our ex-players now with Berwick makes me nervous - I remember well Gareth Hutchison scoring EIGHT for Berwick against us over one season. I didn't think Fairbairn was too bad and is probably capable of giving our defence problems. It wouldn't surprise me too much if Bolo, Little, Greenhill and Coult were to play out of their skins tomorrow either.

As Waspie says any kind of unconvincingly hideous win for Alloa would do. I hope Aggie is back on the left flank and can rediscover his earlier season form, he's looked somewhat demoralised ever since he got the hook at Airdrie.

But Hutchy was a good player as is/was Little.

Bolo was OK for us for a while but was making too many disasterous mistakes in his final days with us. Greenhill, Coult and Fairbairn were pish with us. They may play well tomorrow but that doesnt change that fact.

One good omen I hope - my crutches have gone. Last time I didnt have them was the victory over Ross County. When I was on them we didnt pick up a single point.

Cant understand Maitland's treatment of Aggie. Surely he must play from the start tomorrow. After all the rest of our midfield has been gash since the RC game.

With the small exception of the away Cowdenbeath game, which was one of our best of the season and the midfield were top class.

I thought Fairbairn was okay for us. Always put in plenty of effort, made defenders work and knew what he was doing with the ball. Was lacking something though with his final pass/shot and thats probably why he was mainly on the bench. He obviously wanted to get his game every week, so I have no problem with him moving on.

That was probably just after he signed his pre-contract with Ayr

is this game on today coz aken there a few that have been called off???

plastic pitch

Much better work-rate from Alloa today. Dougie Wilson covered every blade of "grass" and was great today, Broonie could easily have had at least a hat-trick and Sandy Hodge looked pretty assured in the centre of defence. I was most pleased with the attitude of the boys today, they really looked up for it and actually closed down and made tackles for a change.
Hopefully this puts a close to the disastrous festive period we've had and gives us a fresh start for the 2nd half of the season.

Not sorry to see no sign of Fleming whatsoever, as I said last week, he's been the cause of most of our goals against recently. Don't know if Aggie is the answer at set-pieces though......

We could have had 6 or 7 today and the scoreline flatters Berwick a little. Good luck to them as they try to avoid the drop, tbh they are going to need a lot of luck but they certainly fought hard enough until going behind.

Yeah, agree with wasp4life. A far more assured performance for the most part today, but missing that killer instinct perhaps.

I thought Aggy was actually pretty good with the dead ball and just generally is a better player to have on the pitch. Dougie had another great game, but I wish he'd take folk on more. He has the skill to skin a defense and create more opportunities. All too often he'd cut back and lay off for a cross, which is fine, but it'd be nice to see some variety. His goal was a peach and a great ball to set up the first.

When we went 2-0 up we were really starting to rip the pish out of Berwick so it was a bit disappointing to conceed a sloppy consolation at the end,

All in all though, much closer to what we were enjoying during the first half of the season.

And ... the sausage rolls were hot today so a great day all round.

EDIT TO ADD: Oh, and I thought Hodge had a good game too.

Well, that was our one chance for an away win, against a team that had lost it's last four(?) matches...

...And the result was the same as last time. Grr!

To be expected, I suppose, we've ten players out, and you could see the bare bones today. We tried, certainly until we were two down, but it was clearly an Alloa win, they could have had more.

Can't fault our players, despite most of them being newbies or in the wrong position (McMullan on both wings, McCleish at Right Back etc), just desperate times when you're bottom of the league with a whole team of players out.

Oh, and nice of Alloa to print a new programme for the rearranged fixture (many other clubs wouldn't), just a shame to be charged full price again (but understandable, I guess).

Can't see many making the trip up to Peterhead next week, especially with rail replacement buses beyond Dundee

well get along and watch the reserves at home v eyemouth utd

The reserve game will be called off due to all of them coming into the first team.

That Anderson gadge reminded me of G.Greenhill, looks like him, and has skill, and got himself on the scoresheet (Deflection mind). McLean wasn't exactly impressive, neither was Crouchy, but gi them time and they'll come good. (I hope) I wish Renwick would give Brydon a game like.

We were dominated for most but did well to get one back in the last 5. Alloa keeper was a bit dodgey was he no! No wonder you lost 4 in a row.

Luuuuuuurvlleeyyy trip to Peterhead next week. :|

much better performance all round today passed the ball better and looked more assured at the back think berwick were lucky to have 10 men as the tackle from fairbairn weve seen red cards given in recent weeks as studs were showing

To be fair both sides got away with many things, I thought Alloa should have had a few more bookings, but so f**k.

fair comment just saying that tackle was one that stood out as its been highlighted alot in recent weeks

Better today but only for the last 30 minutes.I thought that Hodge and Buist were very good today,as if they were now playing in the correct position.Quite impressed with what we saw of the two new signings Hay and Kerr (what a turn in the last minute)although they weren't on the park long.Got to agree Fleming wasn't missed but we have to feed Agnew more,nearly every time he made a run he caused trouble for the berwick defence.

hay and kerr are from the youth set up not two signings

We made very heavy weather of beating a spirited but extremely limited team (who we would have hammered a few weeks back) but ultimately a well deserved victory. 2-1 hardly reflected the balance of play but after our recent results we just needed a win and we got it. Hopefully the players can take some confidence from the result and we can get going again. Wilson was fantastic again, quite incredible that we got him on a free transfer, and a few others put in solid performances. The two lads from the youth teams also had some nice touches when they came on as did the new signing Scott.

Far from a vintage performanc but a merited win and something to build on.

I can't run and can cause the Berwick defence trouble.

Mind, some Alloa strikers must be pish, yous had about 25 attempts, 10 of them straight at Flockhart, he's our secondary keeper, you should really have been putting them in the corners.

That reminds me Gary O at half time running on, and doing a shit load of skill.

Fair point, but I was just pleased to see folk taking a ping at goal yesterday. Recently, the story has been fannying about with the ball in and around the box, getting dispossessed and generally just fucking up. The fact that shots were going in suggests an increase in confidence ... and there were a few that came pretty close.

Cant believe we only scored 2 yesterday. How many chances did we make a mess of? Broonie should have had a hat trick at least. Still a win is a win. Not a great performance but enough to beat a poor Berwick team. Dougie Wilson seemed to be getting back om form and good to see Aggie back starting. We obviously had a few players out too as our bench was all u19's plus new signing Scott. I thought those that came on did well.

Did have a good laugh at Coult. Berwick must be hoping they get their first choice strikers back soon because he is one of the worst forwards I have seen play at this level. And Fairbairn is pish.

Lastly what's the deal with Creer? Not even going in goal at the halftime kickabout. Idiot. Lets hope this clown is on his way soon.

He's hoping to move to America according to the Advertiser. A lot of fans will be hoping its a one way ticket Im sure .

Dougie was all over the park, but should have focussed more on the right flank as their left back was completely in the mire second half- there for the taking.

Kerr did really well when he came on, plenty energy and craft, and set up Wilsons goal.

Very good second half performance.

He's off to America in August, according to him. And he hasn't gone in goals at halftime for months. Last week, I shit you not, he was hanging around the shop and tried to get my mate to buy him a pie. My mates remark "I'd fling one at you but you'd probably drop it" sadly went unanswered.

Is he trying to challenge Andy Seaton as the all time Alloa pie eating champion?

When I think about it thats true he hasnt been in goals at halftime for ages. I think it was because he was booting balls into the enclosure yesterday that it was more obvious. I usually try to ignore him. Was hoping one came my way and I caught it just so there was the opputunity to show him how its supposed to be done - but sadly not.

In America they'll look at him like we see Coult.

A far from sparkling performance on Saturday but it was just good to be getting back to winning ways after 4 defeats in a row. The effect of those defeats was pretty obvious to see as our football in the opening half an hour or so was full of errors and we struggled to put a good move together. Thankfully we were able to take advantage of a Berwick f**k up with Dougie Wilson crossing for Graeme Brown to head home.

Our football improved after the goal but never looked like reaching the heights it had prior to run of defeats. It took a lot of huffing and puffing from of us to get our second goal a good finish, eventually, from Jinky. I was disappointed to see us losing a goal as I think Jelly really needs a shut out to get his confidence and performances back to where they were before a recent slump.

I'm not sure that Jinky worked as a second striker, he's so much more effective as an out and out winger. I'm guessing that injuries and illness didn't leave Maitland with much choice however. Positives to take from the game were Sandy Hodge's performance at centre half, John Grant in midfield, Jinky - as usual, and the young players all looking reasonably comfortable when they were brought on.

We really need another win next week away to Ayr before the inevitable battering from Airdrie.