AlloaAdam

Humped off a team of children. Have to say as much as there were plenty of changes and we probably didn’t put much importance on the game, I’m starting to lean towards thinking it’s time for Andy Graham to get in the dugout.

Well that was pretty poor. Scored a decent goal after not doing a lot else in the first half and didn’t really turn up for the second half. Ogayi was excellent and deserved a clean sheet, thought he was unlucky with the goal after a decent save - had a couple of excellent ones a few minutes before. O’Donnell was good again and that was about it, we still don’t look like a team and we don’t really have a way of playing - just a lot of balls into the channel and hoping to play off the seconds (which we rarely win). Already a must win game next week.

Certainly looked like a back 5 from the get go for me today. Actually think now that Taggart, unsurprisingly considering how much he’s played there for the last few seasons, is now better at centre half than he is at right back. Does Michael Doyle have a club yet? Thought we were alright first half, very poor second half and lucky that cove were poor, however a much needed 3 points all the same. O’Donnell was impressive for me when he came on.

Based off Rice’s comments after the game on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Morgyn Neill dropped. Been pretty hopeless for us IMO despite getting good reviews from previous clubs and looked to me like he gave up a couple of times when a boy went passed him on Saturday. Can’t say the other options we have in there give me much hope either in fairness. Fingers crossed he goes for a 1 up front (not a chance that’ll happen!) and we play to our strengths by having as many midfielders as we can have on the pitch at once as that’s where we’re probably strongest. Probably worth pointing out we started last season with 3 losses and 1 win before going on a good run and we looked equally as hopeless at that point with a hammering at home to FC Edinburgh and an awful performance away at Airdrie in there. Let’s hope we start another good run here.

For what it’s worth I’m just happy to see an interview going up most weeks which is a vast improvement on hearing Barry Ferguson’s thoughts about rangers performance on the radio after we’d been beaten at the weekend and heard nothing from him. Your question was a perfectly valid one and I don’t think there was much wrong with Rice’s answer to it, clearly just frustrated after watching us be a complete shambles at the back. Based off our performance yesterday I would say that a 2 minute post match interview is pretty low on my worries for this season.

Good to see there haven’t been any overreactions after a great win last week.

After a howler from McKay it was safe to say we were fearing the worst but was an excellent reaction to going behind so early. The first half was utterly bizarre seeing as neither team was really bothering to defend and the players were slipping all over the place. Would assume it’s down to the pitch being brand new but was a bit of a farce at times in the first half. Thought we looked a lot better defensively when we went to a back 4 in the second half, and if Queens had nicked a draw we would’ve felt pretty robbed as they did nothing second half (absolute joke of a penalty aside). Rodden was magnificent in the first half, looked a completely different player to the Rodden from about last October onwards. Long may that continue, took both his goals really well. Kurtis Roberts was MOTM by some distance as well, absolutely fantastic and never stopped running. Plenty to improve on defensively going forward but an excellent 3 points to start the season after a poor cup campaign.

1. Alloa Athletic 2. Queen of the South 3. Hamilton Accies 4. Falkirk 5. Cove Rangers 6. Montrose 7. Kelty Hearts 8. Stirling Albion 9. Edinburgh City 10. Annan Athletic Absolutely no blind optimism involved.

I can see the argument of Rodden being more rusty than others, but you’ve also got to remember that despite not playing since the end of January, the last goal he scored was on the 17th September! He may have a couple of decent attributes but he’s not clever enough to use them to his advantage and we plainly have better options than him - whether they are out and out strikers or not. The first few league games are going to be a grind for us to try and scrape as many points as we can until we get a couple of strikers through the door and we would be much more likely to get points with Coulson/O’Donnell/Cawley/Rankin playing off Sammon rather than hoping he comes good IMO.

Buchanan certainly didn’t do his chances any harm of playing more consistently this season, and if he keeps developing I could see Taggart being a centre half again this season for us, still not entirely convinced on McKay. Debayo was good last night, if a tad wayward on the ball at times. Difference between the sides last night was they were able to bring on a top striker against a tiring defence and he certainly made the most of it, Carrick was excellent for them last night. Wouldn’t have mattered if we’d taken a couple of the guilt edged chances in the first half right enough.

Very generous on Rodden. Looks like he’s won a competition to play up there, completely out of his depth. He doesn’t have the intelligence to use his pace unless the defenders are knackered and should be getting 10 minutes at the end of games at most. Rankin as much as he’s only 18 is a much better footballer and I feel we’d get on a lot better with either him or Coulson playing off Sammon until we get another striker or 2 in. Last night pretty much confirmed my thoughts, we’re pretty solid in defence and midfield but very lacking up front. Still plenty time to sort it so no need to panic as of yet.

So let me get this straight, you make a 400k loss every year based on your current spending, and if you get promoted you still make this amount of a loss even in the championship. You can only stay full time this season because of a cup run last season that’s kept you going, and yet you have spent big money on Brad Spencer and Tom Lang to drop a division while having an unbalanced squad and no natural right back. And this is just normal?? What a shambles that sounds like. Amusing right enough.

Almost certain Trialist 7 was Robert Jones, formerly of Clyde and Dumbarton. Hopefully was just there to make up the numbers last night when Sammon was away rather than us actually looking to sign him because he was hopeless last night and I can’t remember him ever looking remotely like a footballer against us either. Hetherington last night was excellent, particularly first half, and him and virtanen with Scougall in front has the makings of an excellent midfield this season. A couple more striking options, ideally promising loans, and I really fancy our chances this season to fight at the top.

Not the most clued up on the financial situation but signing more players on 2 year deals after spending the last year moaning that you can’t get rid of half the squad because they were on 2 year deals does seem very odd to me, no matter how good the players are on paper. Good signings right enough but just seems a big risk to me.

If it’s a player who doesn’t want to go full time then it’s probably someone who is already contracted for next season but doesn’t want to stay as they’re going full time. Based off that virtanen didn’t get the option as he had already been released so likely someone else as well as him. Not sure if Neill was on a 2 year deal or accepted a new deal for this season but I’d also be pleased if it’s him, a very solid centre half for this level.

Improved massively for us last season but replaceable IMO. Has an excellent cross on him but doesn’t have lightening pace to beat a man and his defending at times is questionable (to put it nicely!), particularly at stopping crosses. Probably on balance deserves a move to a full time team, good luck to him.

I’d argue Devine would be a massive risk considering he played 10/38 games this season and yet it was the most appearances he’s made in a season in his career so far. Was decent enough when he played but not good enough to make the risk worthwhile IMO, seems like a bit of an unnecessary risk to me. Hopefully if he does sign he gets a bit of luck on the injury front.

See that Jon Robertson has basically confirmed on instagram that he’ll be leaving. Been a fantastic Alloa player and one of my favourites from the past decade, a true unsung hero who does a lot of the dirty work that goes unnoticed at times. Would hope that him leaving is his choice and not us getting rid as despite last season not being his best, he’s still more than capable of being a starter in a promotion chasing side. Best of luck to him, sure he’ll be a success wherever he goes.

God I hope not

An interesting one. Not exaggerating by saying he’s the best striker I’ve seen at Alloa in the air, wins every single header, and will be very good for you if you have someone playing off him as his link up is decent as well. Not a prolific goal scorer so I wouldn’t be playing him up top on his own and counting on him winning you games. Disappointed to lose him but good luck to him, deserves another crack at full time.

Thought we definitely could’ve done more with the ball last night, but outside of a couple of hairy moments we were excellent at the back. Devine in particular was great and as much as Taggart wasn’t as sharp as he has been, just having him back in was a huge bonus. Thought O’Donnell did well when he came on as well. Could badly do with a couple of players back but we’ve given ourselves a great chance.

As much as we aren’t fully over the line yet and it’s not mathematically done, if Taggart, Donnelly or Scougall are carrying even a slight knock I’d be wrapping them in cotton wool for the play-offs. They’re all crucial to us and I wouldn’t risk them, we’re still capable of getting the points we’ll need before the end of the season without them and the play offs are essentially a write off if they aren’t playing for us. Not sure I fancy QotS or Edinburgh to get enough points to overtake us anyway even if we don’t pick up any.

Muir being the better keeper is based off of absolutely nothing though. He cost the first goal in our collapse against FC Edinburgh and cost the goal away at kelty where we drew 1-1 in his only starts, he just blatantly isn’t a better keeper than Scotland’s under 21’s keeper. Rice’s biggest mistake is continually playing a back 5 and having our best players out of their natural positions, not signing a very highly rated keeper who has made numerous great saves this season and has kept us in games, a lot easier to notice keepers when they make a mistake rather than complimenting them on keeping us in games with an ever-changing defence in front of them.

Utter rubbish. He made a couple of mistakes in the first few league games and since then has barely put a foot wrong, can’t remember the last time before Saturday he actually made a mistake that led to a goal so if you could remind me of when that was that would be nice. This idea that some people have got that Willie Muir who couldn’t get a game for Queen’s Park last year and has been shaky at best for us when he started this season would suddenly be the answer, is nonsense as well. If you have a young keeper on loan you have to expect that they are still learning and are likely to make a few errors throughout the season, and have to hope that they can make up for that by developing and making some great saves, which IMO Hogarth has done. Experienced keepers aren’t exactly exempt from making mistakes either, like Hutton last year for example.

Very interested to see the team Rice picks today but I think I’d be tempted to have taggart at right back and either church or strachan at left back, think having a naturally left footed left back would make us a little bit better. For me Scougall has to start every week he’s fit for us but I don’t have a clue who to drop so don’t envy the manager on that front, very difficult decision to make.