Managers Post Alloa Athletic

09/11/19: Link to audio of both managers post match comments

The Pars manager Stevie Crawford started by commenting how this result and results elsewhere on Saturday (Arbroath beating Inverness Caley Thistle, Queen of the South defeating Ayr United) demonstrated just how everyone can beat everyone else in this year’s Championship. He went on to describe the frustration in the dressing room after the 2-1 defeat to Alloa:-

“There was a bit of a ding dong in the right manner in that dressing room after that game. There was disappointment in the manner that we lost the goals today. Collectively, and I have got to say that as a staff as well, to lose the second goal in the manner that we did. It is things that we work on on the training ground and we have not done our jobs properly so it is something that we can address and get better at.

“I can’t fault the boys for their effort and their commitment. We created chances, we hit the bar, there were a few boys throw their body on the line. We have come here and created more goal scoring opportunities so on that front I am fully behind the players and the efforts that they gave. Credit to Alloa for winning the game of football.”

The team reacted well to going behind to a disappointing penalty decision in the first half. Stevie continued:-

“I have not managed to see it from that angle but the boys are adamant that they didn’t think that it was a penalty kick. We managed to get back into the game despite Alloa having a good ten minute spell at that point where the6 put us under a bit of pressure.

“We finished the half well having scored at a good time. Second half we got at them but I thought we were a bit open ourselves so we tried to change it by going with three up front and three in the middle of the park to make us more secure in the middle.

“It didn’t work. We felt the boys more comfortable and more of an attacking threat when we flipped it back to the 4-4-2 which has brought us success in recent weeks in games. We are not necessarily disappointed with the performance but the result is a sore one today.”

Despite having more shots on target than Alloa, ten shots to Alloa five and ten corners to Alloa’s seven Stevie agreed that was also a function of a combination of brave defending and good goalkeeping.

“We have to continue addressing is taking small steps to improve. We have got to give ourselves a platform to win games. It is interesting that in the last two, albeit at home, we have kept clean sheets.

“Today we gave away two goals, yes we created chances that on another day you might have scored two or three goals. You can’t come away from games winning 3-2 or 4-3 to take three points. That is not singling anybody out, that is collectively from the staff right through to the players. It is something that we can work on and get better.”

Asked if it was a blow to lose some of the momentum of taking six points from the last two games Stevie replied:-

“It is how you respond to it. We got off to a tricky start to the season where fixtures were coming at us and they weren’t easy fixtures. We didn’t put enough points on the board.

“We had a run of good games where we were confident. I don’t think there was a lack of confidence in our performance today but we have lost bad goals and it has cost us.”

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