The Alloa Athletic Thread

[LeodhasXD]

Myself and @KierenAAFCwere doing commentary and I said that I was surprised Dunfermline changed things at the very moment we score. They were doing quite well up until Wighton goes off. Predictable they lost their way as the half went on.

[KierenAAFC]

We showed a real different side of us today and great to see us rewarded in the end. 

Jay Hogart has to get the first mention. Some real eye-catching stops to keep us in it, he looks like a real astute bit of business. His whole defence were pretty heroic today too. That passage of play when the ball was cleared off the line four times was unbelievable. Have to say Stanger has gone from strength to strength in this Cup campaign, hope it continues. 

The real game changer of the afternoon for me was Rodden off for Robertson. Delighted he is back. Rodden had a hard task up front and was chasing a lot of lost causes. Robertson came on and dictated that game. Always available, simple passes right, hard tackles, everywhere on their park and even hit one or two screamers. His presence allowed Scougall to have so much more freedom, was a joy to watch him at times in the second half.

Have to agree with above. Subsitutes were the right ones at the right time for us, not so much Dunfermline. King can find himself hard done by not to be starting but did his job when he came on. McLaren coming on was needed for Kev, good to see him getting some more minutes. Few shaky moments but all part of the process. It is really ecnouraging to see some young boys break through - been a while!

Sammo and MacIver put in a lot of effort too and happy for Sammo to get his goal after Tuesday. All in all, it has been a good campaign for him and he has already equalled his goal tally from last season! It isn't rocket science to say we still need a goalscorer. Both good and do a job but worry about that 15/20 goal man up top. 

Plenty positives to take from today and bodes well going into League 1, and of course next week. Always going to be hard to compete with a club like that over a full season but we can definitely compete. Nice to be back at EEP too, and nice to continue or decent record there!

[vespa]

If Durnan has started his fire service training he'll be working 4 days on; 4 days off which is the same shift pattern he'll work once "on active service".

Young lad, who lives near me, & who is a firefighter confirmed this a few days back.

The reason for the shift pattern while training is to get them into the routine.

[LeodhasXD]

 

[Oweny]

Robertson has been a terrific player for us . An Alloa great no question 

[BFTD]

Considering we finished third, that wasn't a bad League Cup campaign. If we'd had more of an attacking threat, we'd surely have picked up something from Ross County and, other than not killing off East Fife, you can't complain too much about the other games. It looks like we're sorted in goal now, so hopefully the team can share the goalscoring load around between them as the season goes on.

10 hours ago, Oweny said:

Robertson has been a terrific player for us . An Alloa great no question 

He always looked like a player when he was being used as cover for Holmer, so it's great that we managed to keep him. We'll not get better in that role.

[Waspie]

22 hours ago, Kevchenko said:

 

Seem to remember Andy getting sent off at the end of last season so if he’s suspended for next week it will be interesting how we line up at the back. Any idea what’s happening with Durnan and Howie? Believe Durnan is away for fire service training or something at some point but not sure if that’s why he’s missing or not. Remember a defender getting injured in one of the preseason games but can’t remember if that was Durnan or Howie?  

It was Durnan who went off injured in the Stirling friendly and hasn't played since. Believe Howie also injured. 

I didn't hear it but apparently Brian Rice was on Radio Scotland today and said something along the lines of the squad not being quite where he'd like at this stage, so hopefully still working on potential additions. All in all though I'd agree it was a fairly positive League Cup campaign which got better after a very poor performance in the opening game. Still feel a striker and LB the main priorities in terms of adding to the squad. 

[LeodhasXD]

Just an update on streaming:

https://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/news/article/live-streaming-update-season-20222023

The final part is key. We may be allowed to stream games in the UK and Ireland that aren't on a Saturday 2:45-5:15. So any midweek rearrangements and pencil in Monday 2nd January 2023 against Kelty Hearts.

Edited July 26, 2022 by LeodhasXD

[vespa]

Alloa FC gaffer issues open invitation to fans

 

https://www.alloaadvertiser.com/news/20517816.alloa-fc-gaffer-issues-open-invitation-fans/

 

Brian Rice says he's happy for fans to attend training.

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, vespa said:

Alloa FC gaffer issues open invitation to fans

 

https://www.alloaadvertiser.com/news/20517816.alloa-fc-gaffer-issues-open-invitation-fans/

 

Brian Rice says he's happy for fans to attend training.

Geoff Mitchell got a few games, so I'm getting the kit on in case we need another immobile man-mountain up front.

[Taylstheref]

1 hour ago, vespa said:

Alloa FC gaffer issues open invitation to fans

 

https://www.alloaadvertiser.com/news/20517816.alloa-fc-gaffer-issues-open-invitation-fans/

 

Brian Rice says he's happy for fans to attend training.

Thank god our previous manager didn't extend that invite. A few may have got the jail!

[vespa]

11 minutes ago, McCulloch No.5 said:

Thank god our previous manager didn't extend that invite. A few may have got the jail!

[LeodhasXD]

 Today is a sad day as we've lost a competitive edge to the rest of the SPFL.

They released a new official teamsheet that is filled in on a spreadsheet. The major feature they added was using a VLOOKUP function that reads your squad list meaning by typing the player number you can automatically fill in First Name, Last Name, DOB. For many years I've seen secretaries have been filling it in by hand which wastes a lot of time. We've been doing this for at least 2 years because we had limited staff in the office after COVID.

Although we also take it a little further in that the official teamsheet also generates the team lines that go to the press with the home and away lineup, our graphics for Wasp TV and also also fills in the lineup tab in  sportspress match event on the website.

When anyone says we're a backward little club this is one of those moments we were way ahead of the collective.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by LeodhasXD

[Skyline Drifter]

20 hours ago, LeodhasXD said:

 Today is a sad day as we've lost a competitive edge to the rest of the SPFL.

They released a new official teamsheet that is filled in on a spreadsheet. The major feature they added was using a VLOOKUP function that reads your squad list meaning by typing the player number you can automatically fill in First Name, Last Name, DOB. For many years I've seen secretaries have been filling it in by hand which wastes a lot of time. We've been doing this for at least 2 years because we had limited staff in the office after COVID.

Although we also take it a little further in that the official teamsheet also generates the team lines that go to the press with the home and away lineup, our graphics for Wasp TV and also also fills in the lineup tab in  sportspress match event on the website.

When anyone says we're a backward little club this is one of those moments we were way ahead of the collective.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

This isn't new. The SPFL have provided such a teamsheet for at least 3 years. We were certainly using it before Covid.

[LeodhasXD]

25 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

This isn't new. The SPFL have provided such a teamsheet for at least 3 years. We were certainly using it before Covid.

Acht, well we developed our own. Ours has validation set up too so you can't mess up the formulas which happened in 2 minutes of someone else taking a look at the SPFL copy.

[printer]

Is an electronic copy of the teamsheet sent to the SPFL or do they just get a paper copy? Presumably they load the details onto their own system?

[LeodhasXD]

3 minutes ago, printer said:

Is an electronic copy of the teamsheet sent to the SPFL or do they just get a paper copy? Presumably they load the details onto their own system?

Nowadays most referees want an email. I'm staunchly anti-paper. Not sure on the SPFL but I assume that their data comes from opta or genius sports who we supply with the teamline.  I assume the referee's sheet is only a confirmation after.

[printer]

2 hours ago, LeodhasXD said:

Nowadays most referees want an email. I'm staunchly anti-paper. Not sure on the SPFL but I assume that their data comes from opta or genius sports who we supply with the teamline.  I assume the referee's sheet is only a confirmation after.

Thanks. It would be interesting to know how SPFL process the data. I'm guessing they use the file e-mailed to the ref, but you might be right in that they link into opta etc. Certainly this could save them some checking/processing, but they might not want to give up control. I'm a bit sad in that I find this kind of thing interesting. 

Maybe @Skyline Drifter knows a bit more.

[Skyline Drifter]

2 hours ago, printer said:

Is an electronic copy of the teamsheet sent to the SPFL or do they just get a paper copy? Presumably they load the details onto their own system?

 

2 hours ago, LeodhasXD said:

Nowadays most referees want an email. I'm staunchly anti-paper. Not sure on the SPFL but I assume that their data comes from opta or genius sports who we supply with the teamline.  I assume the referee's sheet is only a confirmation after.

 

8 minutes ago, printer said:

Thanks. It would be interesting to know how SPFL process the data. I'm guessing they use the file e-mailed to the ref, but you might be right in that they link into opta etc. Certainly this could save them some checking/processing, but they might not want to give up control. I'm a bit sad in that I find this kind of thing interesting. 

Maybe @Skyline Drifter knows a bit more.

The referee is required to email the teamline to the SPFL within two hours of final whistle. It's the referee's responsibility, not the clubs, as they complete the sections  on subs and scorers. They also upload the info to the SFA Extranet system by Monday morning (or following morning for midweek games) and the SFA use this to sort out disciplinary issues / suspensions, etc.

Contrary to Leo, I've never had a referee say they'd rather have an email. In my experience most are perfectly happy to receive it by paper. I imagine it's easier for them to complete their info on it and then email a photo to the league than try to edit pdf or photo that's emailed to them. We've generally gone back to doing them on paper this season, although I did last weekend's on email as I wasn't able to actually be at the match in Elgin. They were all email last year as generally they weren't even in the same stand as the team.

I've no earthly idea whether the SPFL use info from Opta / Running Ball or anyone else but I'd doubt it. I'd assume they probably take it from the copy they get from the referee. Ultimately, in issues of some doubt like who got the last touch on something or if it's not 100% clear who gets booked, the referee report is going to be the one that matters.

[LeodhasXD]

1 minute ago, Skyline Drifter said:

 

 

The referee is required to email the teamline to the SPFL within two hours of final whistle. It's the referee's responsibility, not the clubs, as they complete the sections  on subs and scorers. They also upload the info to the SFA Extranet system by Monday morning (or following morning for midweek games) and the SFA use this to sort out disciplinary issues / suspensions, etc.

Contrary to Leo, I've never had a referee say they'd rather have an email. In my experience most are perfectly happy to receive it by paper. I imagine it's easier for them to complete their info on it and then email a photo to the league than try to edit pdf or photo that's emailed to them. We've generally gone back to doing them on paper this season, although I did last weekend's on email as I wasn't able to actually be at the match in Elgin. They were all email last year as generally they weren't even in the same stand as the team.

I've no earthly idea whether the SPFL use info from Opta / Running Ball or anyone else but I'd doubt it. I'd assume they probably take it from the copy they get from the referee. Ultimately, in issues of some doubt like who got the last touch on something or if it's not 100% clear who gets booked, the referee report is going to be the one that matters.

Teams are on the SPFL website way too quick to be from the referees but I do see it change after games and I assume that they take the referees filling it in or right enough from the extranet.