Waspie

I like PJ and am hopeful he will prove himself to be a really good number one choice for us. He certainly has improved the defence since coming back in, despite perhaps not being 100% fit initially, and the defenders look more solid with him behind them. Having someone to really push him would help but I'd be more worried if he picked up an injury and was out for a long spell. Ogayi is a bit like Rodden in that he is really enthusiastic and you want him to do well, but he really shouldn't have got a gig at this level in the first place. The thought of PJ being crocked and us relying on Phil for an extended period is a bit scary. Edinburgh City have obviously been a bit of a bogey team for us at times (over the decades) but we really have to be beating them today. Speaking of the old romantic Rice, perhaps we can see his influence at Livi where previously impressive striker Joel Nouble has recently been reinvented as a RWB. He loves it, apparently.

He runs around a lot and will have a shot if he gets on the ball near goal. It is unorthodox but the general chaos can unsettle defences. Flipside is that it also unsettles his own team and he tended to struggle when he started, which probably wasn't a great surprise for a player who had been plucked from 3 tiers below. Your best bet is probably to unleash him for the last 20 mins or so and hope his pace and enthusiasm can bring a few goals.

Good work if we've managed to move Brad on. His work rate and enthusiasm were really admirable and made it hard to criticise but in truth he was clearly a middle of the road tier 6 player who somehow landed in tier 3. He did well to get a few goals by shooting whenever he could - and he deserves great credit for giving it everything he had - but he struggled overall and the team was noticeably weaker whenever he started. The calls for him to be starting were bizarre and it was no coincidence that he hasn't played a single minute since Andy Graham took over. To be honest I'd have thought he'd be better dropping out of the SPFL for a regular game but perhaps he can do the supersub gig in a Stenny team that is going well. Good luck to him, he certainly gave his all for Alloa. Thought the manager made a lot of sense with his comments on the window. If we can retain the loans and with LD and Robbo to come back then we'd be in pretty good shape. Obviously he has very little wriggle room with the size of the squad he inherited but perhaps he can move a few of the more peripheral men on and maybe make space for an extra addition. I'd agree with Kev on the point he made on the podcast, if there was a half decent goalkeeper available somewhere to challenge/provide back up for PJ that would be good.

I just wondered when Nouble was quoted as saying he didn't really like RWB after being deployed there in recent weeks! Martindale's comments the other day about tactics, shape etc being irrelevant and players not doing what they were told was almost Brian Rice word for word from a couple of months ago. Looks like they are well suited anyway.

This didn't start after Rice arrived, did it? Playing people out of position was his big thing at Alloa, with an attacking CM at RWB being the most frustrating of the lot. Things much better at Alloa since he left.

That sounds a bit like his time at Alloa. He arrived in rather strange circumstances as we hadn't appointed a new manager after Peter Grant left and it was actually Andy Graham who signed him when he had apparently been tasked with retaining our best men while we found a new boss. The club then made the interesting call to appoint Barry Ferguson, who liked to play Howie at DM when he played him at all. After Ferguson moved on Howie was then a victim of Brian Rice's idiosyncratic style of management with frequent switches in position and shape. Between all that and injuries he never really got a proper chance at Alloa, but you could tell there was a fine player in there. Howie and Hamilton looks like a really good CB pairing for League 2. Jim Duffy must be absolutely flummoxed looking on at these signings.

Frustrating outcome after a decent performance. Thought we were the better side in the first half without creating many clear cut chances. Montrose started the second half better after their changes and with Scougall having gone off for Alloa, but we overcame that and the introduction of Buchanan turned the game back in our favour. He scored an excellent goal from a great O'Donnell cross before creating the second for Wales, who finished really well. Delighted for Wales to finally get his goal. That should have been that but we switched off for a really cheap goal from a free kick into the box, and almost immediately let in an even worse one when Lyons should have been stopped long before getting his shot away. Might still have won it with a Wales effort cleared off the line. 2 points dropped but we're very clearly going in the right direction under Andy Graham. We look like a team with a shape and a plan and players are deployed where they are at their most effective. There will be ups and downs but plenty to be optimistic about. Credit to Montrose on digging out an unlikely point.

Great win. There are obviously some questions about how good Cove really are, despite their unbeaten run, but regardless, to go to a team who haven't lost for a good while and to come from behind to win is hugely encouraging. That was a beautiful ball from Kev (and credit to Roberts for stealing possession there) to set up Coulson for the first. Fantastic to then keeping pushing for the win and tremendous scenes at the end. Well done to Andy and the players .

Will be interesting to see our line-up today after an encouraging performance last week. While Hamilton had good chances too, we probably shaded it overall and there was a better balance to the team. Stevie Hetherington is back from suspension today and wonder if Devine is now fully fit too. On the flipside, Scougall obviously took a knock towards the end of the Hamilton game. Hopefully he's fit as he had played really well. If all available, think I'd put Stevie back in at CM and perhaps move Scougall a bit further forward in place of Kev, who was maybe slightly off the pace last week. At the back there is a case for leaving Mackay in after a good performance against Accies. Lots of options anyway and hopefully we can continue to improve over the next few weeks.

This popped up today, the Championship table in mid December 2013. Good times

Few years before I started going to the Recs and a few decades after the era I've been looking at recently. If it was 1924 then no bother . @Oweny might be the man on here. Or try John Glencross at the club, I'm sure John would know.

Not convinced that switch was key to Accies taking over for the last 10 rather than Alloa tiring and dropping deeper. Perhaps a bit of both. Accies might have won it with the shot against the bar in that spell but it would have been an undeserved win given the chances we had. Wales was terrific in all aspects except not sticking the ball in the net but the goals will come for him. Still plenty to work on and the attackers will get better with more games in that shape - they weren't always on the same wavelength - but it looked like a much more coherent team already, a team that knew what it was trying to do. Defence was fairly solid also and fair play in particular to Mackay who had his best game (and edit to add, on second viewing the miscommunication with PJ wasn't Mackay, my apologies to him ). It can all get better with more games and between that and some key men to come back there are certainly grounds for optimism.

Not totally sure about that. We did play well against Stirling (albeit they were very poor indeed) but even in some of the other improved results before that game the team still looked ragged at times. The big difference for me was finally having some kind of settled team and crucially players in attack who could link things up, rather than the 3-5-2 in particular. Personally I prefer 4 at the back but agree it will be really interesting the next few weeks to see how Andy sets up his team. Interesting already over just two games (and with selection issues) that he has gone with 4 at the back and kept players in natural roles and also who has and hasn't played. Obviously very early and we'll get a better idea as the weeks and months pass. There are certainly a few things to be addressed - centre of defence in particular - but there is also plenty of talent there. Really enjoyed watching Raith Rovers again last night, so many creative players at the top of the field, great movement and link up play and being supported by runners from midfield. That's the top of the league above but for our level we are very well off for creative, attacking players who could potentially do something similar in League One: Scougall, Donnelly, Cawley, Coulson, Roy, Steven, Wales - and with Sammon as a different option. Some of those can play the deeper roles too, as well as Stevie and Roberts (and Robbo when he gets back). And Cammy if we use him centrally rather than wide, where he is also very good. Add in Taggs raiding down the right and you have to wonder just how we've managed to be so poor. We had wonderful attacking teams (using 4-2-3-1) under Ross and Goodwin but I do feel the ingredients are there in this squad for a really good side. The challenge for Andy is to sort the defence (and GK, although I'm still hopeful PJ can prove himself) and settle those attacking options into a shape that can make best use of their talents.

Bizarre suggestion, clearly Borders Athletic would be the logical choice. Disappointed to see City having problems. Plenty of questions about the previous regime with the extremely questionable name change and return to Meadowbank, while at the same time apparently increasing the playing budget quite dramatically. Must have been a huge challenge for the new regime to take on. City in their different guises have a history of pulling through dire circumstances some way or another (even if it once took 30 years to re-emerge). Hopefully they can do it again.

Lister wasn't bad in an Alloa side that had a nightmare of a season and he was only player from that squad that Paul Hartley tried to keep. But aye, confidence is obviously huge, as is being utilised effectively and having the right players around you.

Fond memories of watching your Dad play back when I first started watching Alloa, Sam. Remember in particular a hat-trick at Meadowbank just after we went up to the First Division. Shirts from that era aren't too easy to find and quite expensive. There is site that does replicas. They aren't 100% accurate and I think some of the reviews are a bit mixed, but I got a couple of tops from them and they are decent enough (although they took a while to arrive). You could maybe do that and get the name on the back yourself. I'll DM you the site. As it happens, the company Matchwinner has been revived in recent times and they're working with a number of clubs to do proper remakes of shirts, jackets etc from that era. Stuff looks really nice. Perhaps if enough Alloa fans asked the club they might look into it. I remember MM saying before they'd be happy to look at ways of doing stuff with the old badge if it was feasible, this might be a way to do it.

It was the case in Scotland if you go back far enough. Non league Alloa drew 0-0 with Rangers in 1921 (and according to the Alloa fans a late effort cleared by Rangers was actually over the line) but the directors then agreed to play the replay at Ibrox too, getting a far bigger crowd but infuriating the Alloa support. Rangers won 4-1. Just one example though, was very common practice I think. Motherwell away not the worst draw for us, ground we haven't been to for almost 30 years. Won the last time .

Not sure about that, Alloa could have had 3 in the first 10 minutes! But Dunbar did really well, worked so hard, played some nice football, and while they perhaps carried a bit of luck at times, they might well have gone to extra time at the end. I was really impressed with the whole club, great setup and very welcoming, as were the places we visited in the town. Good luck for the rest of the season folks!

Probably the strongest team we could have named in the circumstances and agree with printer about Kev, great to see him so involved as a creative influence and bringing his normal massive workrate. He scored a great goal after top work from Roberts and Taggart too. Must be said we made things difficult for ourselves. Could have had 3 in the first 10 minutes but then gifted Dunbar a goal. Having turned it around and got in front we didn't put them away and they might well have equalised late on. PJ and the central defence didn't have their best day. But we won at a tricky venue against a side who were really up for it and with a rather makeshift team, have to take that. Would credit Roberts in particular who never stopped and captain fantastic Taggs. Also good to see Cammy back and I thought Coulson was a real threat in the first half. Really enjoyed Dunbar, a welcoming town and club and the players did them proud.

Not sure he really had a save to make to be honest. Strangely subdued performance from Alloa. Looked like we moved to a 4-2-3-1? Been calling that for a long time - in particular earlier in the season when our forward options were very limited - and interesting that Andy immediately went with that. Probably an argument for sticking with the other shape given we had finally settled into it and were looking better, but also the right call if that's his plan moving forward. We never really got going but very little went for us either with City scoring a screamer then converting pretty much the only other chances they had. 3-0 didn't reflect the play but City were very deserving winners. They were tight at the back and clinical in attack, whereas Alloa were too easily opened up, slow and predictable going forward, and failed to stick away the couple of chances in the second half that would have given us a chance of making a game of it. I don't think we'll be that poor again though, the team does need strengthened but it's still capable of so much better than we saw today. Bad day at the office and a learning experience for the new gaffer. Maybe Edinburgh City away was a bad place to start given Alloa have a tradition of shite performances there going back to the 1930s. I'm sure Dunbar will be fancying themselves after watching that and we'll need to be much better next week.

Wales will be a big miss, he has really been coming onto a game in recent weeks and even without goals, his link up play and movement have helped the team and made us much more dangerous. We do have other creative options though who although they don't play the same way as Wales, can fit in and help create and link things up. Scougall if he is fit, or Kev, or Coulson. Brad Rodden works so hard and will have a go if the ball falls to him, but he doesn't bring the movement and link up play. If there is a role for him, it's as an impact sub when games have opened right up or if all else has failed and someone running all over the place might just unsettle things. If we're trying to unlock a defence it's just not his game and we've seen that so often when he's started. Great interview with Andy Graham in the Advertiser and so refreshing to have a manager opening up like this: https://www.alloaadvertiser.com/sport/23931530.andy-graham-accepting-alloa-job-no-brainer/

Also very happy with this appointment. In general I prefer younger managers as the older ones have invariably failed on a few occasions before. Our best appointments over the past decade or so were Hartley, Ross and Goodwin. Hartley built an Alloa squad which was class for years. When it broke up Ross built a new one which also gave us years of success (bits of it still there). The more established managers, while some of them were ok, were never as good. Some really weren't good. You might be lucky and get a really good manager who is part-time out of choice (Terry Christie) but overall the men who have done the rounds aren't too inspiring. Of course there's no guarantee at all that a novice will succeed, but I'd prefer in most cases to take that chance. In the case of Andy we know he is a big character, was an inspirational figure on the field, is hugely respected by players, and has very good contacts in lower league Scottish football. It might well be a challenge for him to make the change from being everyone's mate to being the gaffer but I'd very confident he can handle that. He also inherits a very capable squad. Some questions about some of the more recent signings but overall I think it's the best part-time squad in the league if used effectively. Again, given Andy's vast experience it's hard to imagine him chopping and changing frequently or deploying players out of position. Time will tell! Obviously crucial that fans are patient with him. Jim Goodwin a very good example of a manager who made a number of mistakes initially but learned from them and went on to do very well. Good luck Andy .

Deserved win for Alloa over the piece. First half wasn't great for either side with 1 great chance for Buchanan for Alloa and a really good opportunity for QoS which PJ saved well. Second half was better from the Wasps with a very good strike from Roy and two more opportunities, one from from Steven after a good move that he should have burried - and another from Roy. Thought we might regret not putting the game away as we ended up dropping deeper later on, but QoS didn't really pose any great threat. Was probably Roy's least effective performance for us in terms of linking things up but he kept working away and scored a great goal. Steven for Coulson was a big call and not sure it really worked out but also kept at it and tried to make things happen. Thought Wales was very good and a real threat throughout. Have to give a lot of credit to Roberts who never stopped running and driving the team on, and kept things simple while in possession. Good team effort though and a good three points.

Hard to take the poll seriously when Barry Fry, Roberto Di Matteo and Juan Calderon aren't on the list.

Think he was always keen to get back full-time to be honest. His managerial style at Alloa was always pretty bizarre and he was coming under a bit of pressure this season. Think Rugster is correct in saying he is better suited to being a coach and a lot of Alloa fans will welcome this move. Wish him all the best.