Alloa Athletic vs Dumbarton

[Magic Hat]

Fair play to Dumbarton they looked hungrier than we did and played some good football.

Although I didn't enjoy it when Dumbarton scored the third, the scenes from the travelling fans were impressive and entertaining.

Our defence in the last 10 minutes was all over the place and agree with Waspie that the changes made by Rice weakened us. 

Next week is a must win, if we lose and Dumbarton win we are in real trouble. 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Now that that the dust has settled…

A seriously bizzare performance from us. Up until Alloa scored that ripper of a first goal we looked content with a draw, ludicrous stuff given that Peterheid were cruising to a win at Broadwood. After said ripper of a goal we decided we needed to score and looked threatening everytime we burst forward. The introduction of Syvertsen was a game changer, I thought he was superb and his wee mazy run for the penalty was delightful. I had the fear when Duthie stepped up but he dispatched it with ease. Then Wilson whipped a lovely ball into the box that Duthie glanced beyond the keeper and that should’ve been that. Unfortunately we conceded what looked to me like a very soft penalty (I’ve watched the replay numerous times, someone is in the way but it still looks soft as hell). Game over, Sons season hinging on a playoff win, or was it… Mr Norway, the absolutely beautiful man that he is, got himself into the right position and after a bit of ping pong in the box, which resulted in us hitting the bar, he nodded into an empty net. Scenes followed. 

If Syvertsen is fit enough to start games he should be the first name on the teamsheet. 

[Taylstheref]

22 minutes ago, LeodhasXD said:

Should have been put to bed long before our first goal. Henderson's finishes are always so tentative. I keep repeating just smash it and one of those efforts against Wright goes in. Lazy leg from Blaise Riley-Snow for the equaliser is criminal. 

But I enjoyed the game. Season over but players still to win contracts for next year. Except Scougs 10 year deal now.

The utter pish brought in at the start of the season to leave would be a start with 1 maybe 2 exceptions.

Not losing faith, Rice is night and day to what we had and I have faith he"ll sort the mess he inherited.

[Sixtyten]

Scenes for Dumbarton at the end, but a ridiculous ending to the game for us.

A draw would've been fine, but now thanks to that clusterfuck we're being dragged back in. Dumbarton must wish they could play at the Recs more often.

[Robertsons]

I’m speechless. That’s all folks. 

[FifeSons]

I turned it off at 1-0… missed our penalty.

Luckily I tuned back in just in time for our second. Thank f**k I did.

Edited April 2, 2022 by FifeSons

[FifeSons]

Still going to be a massive ask to avoid 9th. I don’t think 2 wins will do it.

[printer]

59 minutes ago, Magic Hat said:

Although I didn't enjoy it when Dumbarton scored the third, the scenes from the travelling fans were impressive and entertaining.

Agreed. I could feel their joy, and who can blame them. Closest we've come to that feeling this season was the the late 4-3 win away to Queen's Park, this must have felt even better.

Obviously very disappointing from an Alloa perspective, given the two chances Henderson missed and after taking the lead, but we came up short again in trying to manage a game we were winning late on. 

I agree the subs, in hindsight, didn't help but presumably Robbo and Kev were struggling as you would never normally take either of them off when leading otherwise.

Also a pity that we didn't see it out after the opener as, assuming a win next week, it would have potentially meant we were going to TFS in two weeks with a chance to leapfrog them.

Have to say also I thought taking Boyd off for McIver was the correct call. 

[rockson]

1 hour ago, the_bully_wee said:

Looked at 3pm like the standings were settled, now there's an interesting run-in on our hands. As the late, great Jim Bowen would say: Dumbarton, you require six points. Game on!

Given the goal difference difference it would most likely have to be seven points. We've got Airdrie and Cove away still to play.

[sonsanorak]

Fair play to Kieran Wright and Connor Duthie, both kept us in it today.

Big Norway was gallus when winning the pen, always under control, never rushed, silky smooth.

Delighted for him, Duthie and the rest of them.  Got to take it into next week now

[Nowhereman]

Scenes for Dumbarton at the end, but a ridiculous ending to the game for us.
A draw would've been fine, but now thanks to that clusterfuck we're being dragged back in. Dumbarton must wish they could play at the Recs more often.

I’d just be happy if we could play on an artificial pitch every week

[microdave]

The finale to that was incredible. A few minutes after Alloa took the lead, I'd had enough and decided to leave as I genuinely couldn't see us scoring. I'd just got to the bottom of the gazebo when we made a break up the right and I returned to the back row. I'm so glad I did. What a feeling when we took the lead with Duthie's second. The Alloa penalty was weird. The ball seemed to stand still for a few seconds and all it needed was someone to row z it. I was getting Armstrong/Kane flashbacks. And when we scored the winner, I have no idea how the players celebrated that as the stand exploded in joy. It's moments like that that keep us doing this during all the dross. Can't wait to see the highlights which tbh, should just be from minute 81 onwards in full.

[Jan Vojáček]

We're almost three hours on. And I'm still not quite sure what the hell happened there.

For 82 minutes that was a pretty dull game. Alloa looked more threatening than us going forward, but didn't really have any fluency in their play. Kieran Wright made two superb saves from an out-of-sorts looking Euan Henderson, and it felt for all the world like one goal would probably win it. We could've hit on the break, or Alloa could finally have made their threat pay.

Enter Blaise Riley-Snow. He drives in an absolutely gorgeous opening goal and that, I thought, was that. We'd played far too many high balls going forward, and hadn't seriously tested PJ Morrison at all in the second-half.

On the stream @LeodhasXD said he hoped we might then have a football match on our hands for the final eight minutes, with Sons knowing they had to win. And my God was that what we got.

I think I'd said jokingly about Syvertsen returning from nowhere to save our season. But in my wildest dreams I didn't truly believe he'd have this much of an impact.

With the ball nowhere particularly dangerous he looked out the full book of futsal skills, bamboozled a few defenders, kept control of the ball and was then fouled by a lazy leg from Riley-Snow.

As luck would have it we'd obviously just hooked Carsy who has been flawless from the spot. So I was convinced that Conner Duthie's penalty would end up with most of his shots and crosses. In a pile behind the goal.

But fair play to him. He absolutely smacked the ball home. It was a cracking penalty.

Having not scored for 450 minutes we then had two in as many minutes.

Callum Wilson curled in the most beautiful cross I've ever seen* and Duthie timed his run absolutely perfectly to flick the ball out of PJ Morrison's reach. Could Alloa have defended it better? Of course. But it was a very well worked goal from ourselves.

So then all we had to do was see the game out for 90 seconds and injury time...

But. As always we shot ourselves square in the head. I know there wasn't much contact on Stefan Scougall, but we should've cleared the ball long before he had a chance to draw a foul.

That would be that I thought. But nope. We chucked absolutely everything at Alloa and were rewarded with the winner. The ball in from Paddy Boyle (I think) was quality, and it was great to see a Sons player in the right place at the right time to stick the ball in the net.

Syvertsen and Duthie will obviously get the plaudits, but I thought our defence deserve a lot of credit for today. Stanger was probably my MOTM up until the late madness, and alongside him Gregor Buchanan looks a lot more settled than he has done with his previous partners. Carlo Pignatiello is so clearly a RB above anything else, and Paddy Boyle was pretty decent. Behind them Kieran Wright made some excellent stops and, a few iffy moments with crosses aside, I couldn't fault him.

If we hadn't won that game then ninth would've been unavoidable. We've given ourselves a chance today. But we need to follow it up with a win next week and a win against Clyde. Win those two games and we might not be far away. I have a nasty feeling we'll need to take something from either Airdrie or Cove mind you. 

I'm not going to think too much about that now though. It's not even we win a game in those circumstances. So I'm just going to enjoy that!

(*Or at least since Ross Forbes' to Jaime Wilson last year against Peterhead)

[superbigal]

Was driving back from Kirkcaldy. Had a large double on Airdrie and Alloa. Car stopped to drop mate of just as Alloa scored. Luckiest timing ever. As I was driving off again decided to cashout. Good decision.

[microdave]

Another fucking penalty. How many have we given away this season? I fucking hate us

That was the 14th which is a club record. The previous one was 12 in 1990/91. That same season there were 26 given in all our games. We are now at 20 this season.

[printer]

Can't ever remember seeing an Alloa player as perplexing as Hendo. The first chance he missed, from Boyd's cross, was one a player of his ability should put away (nearly) every time. The second when he beats the offside trap from Scougs' chip is arguably even easier as he's got a bit more time.

He's got top level ability with lightning pace, as we've seen several times. I'm sure coaches have been trying to get through to him to work harder, be more consistent for a while  now, or is he like he is partly because he thinks he is better than Alloa and is playing at, say, 80% a lot of the time? 

Don't know what the answer is tbh.

 

 

3 hours ago, LeodhasXD said:

Should have been put to bed long before our first goal. Henderson's finishes are always so tentative. I keep repeating just smash it and one of those efforts against Wright goes in. Lazy leg from Blaise Riley-Snow for the equaliser is criminal. 

But I enjoyed the game. Season over but players still to win contracts for next year. Except Scougs 10 year deal now.

[BFTD]

Was keeping an eye on the score until about 16:30, when I figured it was probably a bore draw today.

Looked back about an hour later and was cussing the BBC for their lack of interest in Scottish football, as there was no way that score was right  

[printer]

12 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Was keeping an eye on the score until about 16:30, when I figured it was probably a bore draw today.

Looked back about an hour later and was cussing the BBC for their lack of interest in Scottish football, as there was no way that score was right  

Last fifteen minutes alone were worth at least £20 on stream.

[BallochSonsFan]

We had decent spells in both halves, but struggled to deliver a telling final ball. Alloa had better and more chances and put us under significant pressure at times, but strong defending and solid goalkeeping kept it level. Went bat shit mental in the final 10 minutes. We were lucky to  take all 3 points, but we deserve a bit of luck. Wright and Carlo played very well. I thought Buchanan had a decent game for us and didnt really make any mistakes. The Alloa opener was a fantastic strike and deserves to be applauded for it. Duthie did very well with his goals, but I thought his delivery was suspect for most of the game. Orsi worked really hard but seemed to make the wrong decision at vital moments. I'm not at all sold on big Josh as a striker and of Syvertsen is fit enough to start next week then he gets the nod for me.

Battling performance. A few more of those earlier in the season and we wouldn't be in this mess. 

[Sons Fan]

I love a day out at Alloa

At 82 minutes I was seathing at how they sat back playing for a draw and they loose a goal (great goal btw) we’ll that’s us in the relegation playoffs then. Fast forward 13mins later we walked away with 3 points. The drive and determination from the guys in the last 10mins is exactly what we needed for 90mins. 
 

I hope to god the two goals today give Duthie some confidence in front of goal. He has the pace and can beat a man but Christ his crossing and shooting need work or confidence. 
 

The GK gets credit for a couple of good saves and Stranger looked good again.

Was full of hope today the the female ref would show up all the men and be good, sadly it wasn’t to be and she is just as bad as the rest. 
 

We have given ourself a chance but next week is the big test, we need to turn up and win.

Good luck for the rest of the season Alloa, love an away day there.