Waspie

Agree with this. They say history is written by the winners and I think there's probably an element of that with the theory of us putting everything into the final league games of 2017/18 and that taking us through the play-offs. In truth we probably peaked in the semi against Raith and started to look a bit leggy in the second half of the second leg at Starks. The two matches in the final against what was a poor Dumbarton side by that point were a bit of a slog with injuries also taking their toll. We didn't score until the 93rd minute of the second leg. Had Ross Stewart not sclaffed that one in the chat would probably have been that we put too much into meaningless games at the end of the league season and had nothing left in the tank for the final! And there was probably some truth in that. Thin lines! I thought Goodwin got it wrong the year before but he perhaps went too far the other way in 2017/18 and it was a rather high risk strategy, unnecessarily so. Somewhere in between would make sense and by the sounds of it that's what Andy is looking at. We had lots of good players on the bench on Saturday who haven't played much. Giving them some minutes while keeping everyone else sharp (and resting anyone with any kind of knock) would be ideal. Certainly don't want to see Alloa busting a gut against Falkirk on the last day.

... bring on the play-offs

It was a great night at Cove and what a brilliant goal to seal the play-off place, even if we made it harder than it maybe needed to be! I was really disillusioned with the previous manager. I'm not so bothered about whether or not Alloa are winning or losing as long as we have someone in charge of the football side who has a clear plan about getting the best out of what they have, with a well organised and committed side on the park. Even as a novice manager Andy has had that pretty much right from the start. His team isn't perfect but everyone knows what they're doing, they are pulling together and when it works they are playing some lovely football. You couldn't ask for more. Obviously going to be a big job in the summer to replace the rather fantastic loan players - whatever league we're in - but will be fun to see how Andy approaches it. Have absolute faith in him to work well with whoever he brings in. Not even that bothered about going up as that would make for a really big rebuild but great to make the play-offs and absolutely no pressure on us now, can just go and have a real crack at it. Well done to everyone involved, it's been a terrific few months.

Felt like it must have been really enjoyable for neutrals but a bit more frustrating for Alloa who had to win it twice! But what a high at the end. Whenever we got the ball in attacking positions we were extremely dangerous and could have had more goals. We did struggle further back for control in midfield and had dropped out of the game after going 2-0 up. Still looked like job done anyway until we allowed Cove back into it with a gift and we were rattled for a spell there. It's to the great credit of the players that they bounced back and started creating chances again. The cross from Sutherland and header from Wales for the winner were fantastic, as indeed were Steven and Wales for the second. It's a terrific achievement to be back in the play offs and with two games to spare. Andy has been superb and the team (and several players) unrecognisable from what he inherited. When we are at it we have a side capable of giving anyone we might meet here a game. At the same time we can also be quite vulnerable at times. The lack of control and a cool head in the middle is an issue against better teams and Cove had us in there today. That's something to look at. But everyone involved today gave everything and it was a huge win. Well done Andy and the lads, absolutely brilliant .

Can certainly make a case for that swap at LB. Can make a case for Ethan there too though, or further up! I would leave Taylor Steven wide. He is well capable central but he has been so effective on the flank and a big part of our improved performances. I'd be loathe to change that. Hopefully get a big performance from the boys anyway. We are good enough to win but equally a defeat could make things very sticky indeed the next couple of weeks. Mon the Wasps

The two Alloa examples here provide a good insight. The 05/06 team were a shambles under Tom Hendrie in the first half of the season. Allan Maitland came in but we were 12 or 14 points adrift of 9th in late January. He tightened the team up and we started scraping points. As we got closer the arse fell out of Dumbarton's season and we secured 9th on the last day. With the momentum and feel good factor growing we got past Arbroath in the semi and pumped Berwick 4-0 in the first leg of the final. It was a good Berwick team, they'd got 76 points and lost the title on goal difference, and probably had a better squad than the Wasps, but Alloa were just flying by that point. The 2010/11 Alloa team had much better players and were in the top 4 at Christmas but had fallen apart and hit 9th on the last day. They had much better players than the pretty weak Annan side who beat them in the play off semi but they had no confidence, belief or fight. Momentum and form, or lack of it, is crucial, more so than overall quality of player I think. Of the sides currently battling it out to avoid 9th Annan might well be best placed in that respect, they've been doing really well to get back into the mix. Stirling or QoS might well find it a bit harder to get a head of steam up for a potential play off battle.

Well done City! The new team that McIndoe put together in very tough circumstances are better than the table suggests. With a wee bit of experience (had they kept Fontaine and See even) I think they would have picked up more points. Obviously did us a wee favour there tonight but I'm glad for players and fans regardless. Be nice if you could grab another one and make it back into double figures for the season.

Certainly one for debate! Bit of a frustrating afternoon for Quinn on Saturday with his final ball not coming off. He wasn't alone in that respect though. The diving is frustrating and on both occasions he has been booked for that of late we could have been in really good positions had he just kept going. I'm sure the management will be speaking to him about that. He is a dangerous player and a good option and I'm sure there's still more to come from him. Sutherland for me ideally a better option further up the field and can be a bit heart in the month at times further back. Cammy is a more solid LB - even though he isn't a full-back either. However, Ethan will bring more pushing on from LB than Cammy and he is coming on all the time. On his day a real danger coming from deep and a nightmare for defences to have to cope with a left sided attacker and Sutherland from further back. Tough call for the gaffer but great to have different options. I'm sure a strong LB will be a priority in the summer whatever division we're in.

Bit of a slog in very tough conditions. We needed to get the ball down more than we did and the final ball was frustrating on a few occasions when we were almost in, but easy to say that from the stand, not so easy if you're out there in the swirling wind. Didn't get the best out of Bobby in the deeper role this time. Defence and midfield worked really hard and PJ was terrific with some big saves. A draw was probably about right, we had better chances in first half and Montrose in the second. They'll feel they should have scored near the end but think given the pattern of the past 3 games between the sides that would have been particularly hard to take for Alloa. Point is fine given the Cove result and sets us up for another big game there next week. Hopefully not in a gale.

Think the point about being able to slow it down is key. For all that last week was brilliant we never really controlled the middle of the park; it was all a bit chaotic and Stirling did get a lot of chances. A better side like Montrose will take advantage so we'll need to be a bit tighter in there, while aiming to get the ball wide and do damage, that's where the game was won last week. Guessing Mackay comes in for Devine after a fine display from the bench last week. As the podcast boys mentioned Stevie looked understandably rusty at Forthbank so probably too early for a start. Great option to bring on for more control in the middle though. Probably means the big call is does Wales stay behind the striker, where he was great last week, or does he go back up top with Scougall behind. Both good options but I was so impressed by Bobby in that role last week and in how he knitted things together and got up to support Sammo, I'd be a little tempted to try it again. We've played well against Montrose in the three games and have 1 point. That's bound to be a real confidence booster for the Mo. We really need to turn it around if we're going to stay on course for a shot at the play-offs.

He'd need to bring a wee bit more on the ball for that, I think, but hopefully that will come with time and confidence. Might be less of an issue with a different kind of partner in fairness. While Roberts is also very good he and Miko are liable to be a bit harum scarum together, all tackles and drive, which can be very effective and is certainly great to watch, but at times means you lack a cool head and wee bit more composure in there. Horses for courses! Miko's career seemed to really hit the skids after his initial successful loan spell with Arbroath and he obviously didn't have a great start with us, he deserves great credit for coming in and doing well after new year. Hopefully loads more to come from him. Might we here the Finnish tune over the tannoy before the end of the season Totally agree about MacIver. I thought he could potentially be a good addition for Falkirk in the right role but he's done better than I expected. Also feared that he might well do lots of effective link up work but not score many, and Falkirk fans would be unlikely to tolerate a striker who didn't score. He got off to a great scoring start though and took it from there. Interesting with MacIver, loads of managers have seen something in him but McGlynn the first one to really get it all out of him, right role and right people around him. Big challenge for him a level up but he's good enough and main thing again will be can he get enough goals. Brings so much through bringing others into the game but will obviously need a decent return himself. If he could finish consistently he could go still higher but hard to learn that composure. Going back to the Binos, there were aspects of their performance on Saturday that were ok. They created more chances against us than Kelty, QoS or Annan did and looked decent going forwards at times. The fundamental issue was the keeper. Goals change games and if you're gifting the opposition a two goal lead you aren't going to win very often. It was absolutely ideal for us as it brought Stirling out a bit and allowed us to roast their slow defence. But if Stirling can avoid the calamitous goalkeeping they've got enough to stay up.

I posted this the last time too but anyway, I bought a couple from them a while ago. They aren't exact replicas of the old shirts but the quality is fine. They both took ages to arrive though and obviously some of the reviews online are mixed. I'd use them again but order at your own risk! And even more randomly, a wee bit of Alloa history from 100 years ago in case anyone is interested: https://waspshistory.blogspot.com/2024/04/jock-stirling-untimely-passing-of.html?m=1

I always give him great credit for his squad building . Couple of absolute crazy ones too but still makes for a very impressive ratio overall. Everyone seems very hopeful about the play-offs but still a fair bit of work to be done. Cove and Montrose both have easier fixtures on paper - albeit it didn't work out that way for us over the last couple of weeks. The next two games against Montrose and Cove absolutely huge. Fantastic to go into them on the back of a derby hammering and with (hopefully) the injury situation looking a bit better. Agreed on Wales and Steven, two class acts. Bobby did really well behind Sammo yesterday and while I like him at the top, his performance showed he is also a very good option in the middle of the three behind as well.

Nah, I was saying it for pretty much the whole Rice reign! His mishandling of what he had at his disposal was obvious and it took Andy about 5 minutes to sort it. In fact I'd suggest the idea that the previous win against Stirling was something of a turning point is deeply flawed, picking out one good performance from weeks of absolute rubbish. The occasional half decent performance under Rice never led to anything consistently cohesive. Had he stayed on after that Stirling game I've no doubt he would have quickly enough started changing things around again. And it was pretty revealing that on leaving that he said it was a good move for all parties. Being a manager isn't his bag.

There's absolutely no doubt about that. Rice generally signed well but struggled badly with setting up a team, not helped by his constant changing of personnel and formation. We were invariably disjointed and it was the quality of individual players that often pulled us through. Look at the two Stirling wins over us at the start of the season. Binos sat deep and asked us to break them down and we were clueless. Had Rice stayed I'm sure we'd have continued to underachieve and most probably currently be in the battle to avoid 9th. Andy Graham on the other hand immediately set the team up in a style that suits the players, the style fans had called for. That has seen players grow in confidence with Graham's man management skills also clearly key. I don't know where we'll end up this season and how Andy will do long term but he's already show he's much better than Rice regardless. I didn't think the Stirling squad at the start of the season was good, it was basically what wasn't a vintage League Two title winning squad, but they were well organised, good team spirit and still with momentum from promotion. Sitting deep against us in those games worked a treat, in part due to Rice's Alloa being clueless, but also a masterclass in sitting in, frustrating opposition, and ultimately shitfesting wins. I thought that the Binos would be fine over the season sticking to that model and with enough goalscorers at the other end to get you through, and that Young could try and add much needed quality as he went along. He has clearly tried to do that, but that also brings the risk of Stirling having to change style a bit and open up and go toe to toe. In that situation the rather slow defence, which was a strength when it was sitting deep, becomes a bit of a weakness. The momentum from promotion doesn't last forever either. Best hope is make it over the line then aim to really strengthen throughout the squad in the summer.