Waspie

He wasn't a stand-out at Alloa. He actually came with some very poor reviews from fans of previous clubs and struggled in his first season, although fans had sympathy for him given he had Barry Ferguson shouting at him every week for the first half of the season. He had a mixed start to last season but then had a very good couple of months or so where he excelled in particular in getting well placed crosses into the box, although he was still a bit suspect defensively. After that he spent a fair bit of time at LCB where he did ok and being injured. Has some strong attributes but you signed a work in progress rather than a stand-out. Based on the two games against us QoS and Cove looked like two of the weakest full-time sides I can recall. But other than Falkirk and Accies this league looks really poor. Despite your poor start the play-offs will probably still be very achievable without a massive improvement.

The new attackers certainly brought far better movement and link up play than anything we've seen so far and made for a much improved performance (although a long way from "first class" as the manager suggested). The new faces should get better with more games and there is also potential to get even more out of them if we can get the likes of Scougall, Donnelly, Cawley etc fit and on the same wavelength as the attackers. For all that it's still a poor result. Edinburgh looked very brittle yet might well have won the game. It was a very poor goal to concede from the defence (thought Ogayi might have done better there too but will need to see the highlights) and there were other chances. For all it was an improvement on last week there is still an awful lot to work on if we're going to win games consistently.

Rodden's work rate and attitude are terrific but agree that in most cases he is really suited to cameo roles late on when games have opened up and there is loads of space and little structure. Or the rare occasions when you play a team and those conditions exist at the start of a game (hi QoS ). As a starter this level is invariably bit of a challenge for him. As printer said, our strikers this season have struggled with holding the ball up and with their movement. Not helped by us never getting the best out of the creative players behind them to be fair and in that respect the issues at the club go way deeper than just being short of good strikers. But the forwards haven't been good enough and another couple of options are very welcome. Hopefully they can give us a wee boost ahead of what is a big game today.

Could see why you might think that given our display but in truth Alloa have several really good creative players. More I'd suggest than any other part-time team in the league. One of those wasn't available at the weekend and another on the bench would probably have started had he been 100%. Another couple were left out. Even when we do have them all fit we struggle to make the most of their talents though. It's actually hard IMO to make a team with as many very capable players for this level as poor as we've been this season. I don't think Rice will be in any bother regardless of the result against Edinburgh, we all know Alloa don't sack managers unless things are really desperate. He can make an argument too that he's doing ok overall since he came in. I would hope (and expect really) we will improve for the simple reason above that there are too many good players for us to continue to be so bad. That pulled us into the play-offs last season, even when we weren't as good as we might have been. The squad is a bit weaker now after some mixed summer recruitment but there are still enough good players there for us to be up having a crack at 4th. Personally I have found the Alloa team of the last 18 months months or so a hard watch. The football isn't good. I don't even mean I want the possession football we were spoiled with for a few seasons or a team that wins most weeks, I'd just like there to be some kind of coherent football. Can take pleasure too in a limited side working hard and showing spirit to grind out results or go down fighting. We don't do that either. The team lacks identity and watching feels like a chore in a way that wasn't the case even with far weaker Alloa sides. Given there are plenty of good footballers and characters there that's hard to explain. I don't expect a managerial change anytime soon and I'll always support the team regardless, but also looking forward to hopefully better days in the long term.

An away point isn't a disaster but it wasn't a good performance. We didn't play particularly well against Cove but the hope was that the win would be a confidence boost and the performance at Hamilton, even in defeat, suggested we might well be making progress. This felt like a step back, second half in particular. 1 point from the 3 part-time sides played so far is worrying. Ogayi certainly had his best game. Don't think he saved any you wouldn't expect your keeper to stop - and he probably should have done better at the goal - but he was solid and can't argue with that. Hopefully he can build on that with PJ apparently still a few weeks away. Some other ok individual performances but now 11 competitive games in and still very little evidence of a cohesive team.

Not sure about cheated. Alloa were garbage second half and probably fortunate to get away with a point in the end but for all Annan were on top after the break I don't recall many decent chances? Ogayi made a good save from a free kick but can't think of much else. I did miss parts of it though...maybe Annan had all their chances in those wee spells. Annan solid and clearly up for it though, will have a good shot at staying up based on that. Alloa were ok first half and rubbish second. Another match which really lacked quality in general.

Or we could accommodate them both in the team by just playing them in their best positions. Radical thinking, I know. Cammy is long overdue a proper run in midfield. Seemed like an encouraging performance yesterday (funnily enough with pretty much everyone in their natural roles). Said it often enough but there are plenty of good players in the squad and we are capable of much more than we've seen so far. Can only hope PJ isn't badly injured though or we are going to be in bother.

Quite possibly something there in that his time at Alloa was almost all ups, two and half years of success. The players bought into it and all was well. It's obviously a very different task when things aren't going well. I was a little shocked by just how poor Cove were at the Recs. That said, with so many new faces it's not unnatural that it would take time to settle. It is early but the standard of the league has looked very poor so far too and after Falkirk and Hamilton I'm not sure there is much else. As such, even if Cove aren't as good as hoped the play-offs should still be very attainable.

To be fair to Hartley that's not accurate regarding Alloa. He certainly did have a very good part-time budget (for the fourth tier in particular) but it wasn't a case of him throwing cash at people and having a squad miles better than everyone else. He recruited very well indeed, bringing in some very good young players who had been released by ft clubs (who came I believe more because of Hartley's reputation and how he sold the project rather than huge wages) , but also pt players who hadn't exactly been stand outs elsewhere and who came on massively under Hartley, as well as some who had looked done but were great at Alloa. The team played some fantastic football and while we probably expected to win the fourth tier in his first season, it was a terrific achievement to then go up again the following year. He then tweaked the style slightly in the Championship and had us fourth at the turn of the year in a very tough league - which was absolutely overachieving. He bailed out when he knew he couldn't go higher, but even then the team he left stayed at that level for 3 years and beat Rangers, Hibs, Dundee Utd, drew with Aberdeen. As such, he very much built a great team with shrewd recruitment and players very clearly bought into what he was doing. His reign was crucial in Alloa being a top pt side for years after he'd moved on. He also had Dundee going very well until losing key players (that he had signed) and struggled to replace them. At one point at Dens he seemed to have the tools to go on and be a huge success as a manager (didn't he turn down Cardiff?). Fans of clubs he managed since will have a better idea of how exactly things have gone wrong but judging his time at Alloa through the prism of subsequent struggles elsewhere doesn't provide an accurate picture. He was very, very good.

Wee bit conflicted on that as I certainly don't think that formation makes the most of the players we have and the football was turgid again last week, despite the win. Wasn't also entirely correct to say we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot as Cove could have been two up before we scored. That said, with the exception of Cawley being RWB that team pretty much had everyone in natural enough roles (I'd always prefer Taggs on the flank but he is obviously also very effective as a CB) and the 11 was fairly strong. While it still isn't the best use of what we have, we do without doubt desperately need some continuity and we could do a lot worse than give that shape and team a few weeks. While it's still very early days the standard of the league so far (Falkirk apart to be fair) has been extremely poor. If we ever did manage to get a settled team making the most of the players we have then we could certainly make the top four again.

Did we change formation? I thought Taggs, Neil and Debayo started as 3 CBs and that we stuck with that. Anyway, the game was dreadful and we have PJ Morrison to thank for two huge saves at 0-0. After managing to scrape ourselves ahead though we defended pretty well. Taggart key, just wish that we didn't have to use him there and if we do that we'd signed a decent right sided full-back. Very positive to get a win and clean sheet. We were still extremely limited and way less effective than we should be but 3 points very welcome and hopefully a wee confidence boost. I was encouraged by Devenney's attacking performance in first-half too. Thought Devine did well when he came on as well. Very unfortunate to be the only defender dropped after last week. Thought defence looked better with him there than we had with Debayo. Must be said that Cove were grim, no penetration at all despite being given the ball for long periods of the second-half. If you can't create against a struggling Alloa side low on confidence then alarm bells should be ringing. Not sure that deep role suits Sena. He might not always know what he's doing when he's pushing on but Cove would probably have benefited from his chaotic charging around. Don't recall many performances poorer than that from a full-time team.

Just saw this guy heading into the Recs. Announcement imminent.

Been over this so many times but however much Stevie's move to Falkirk didn't work out, Alloa fans know what he can do. He was consistently excellent in the league about this one and bringing him back was great business by Brian Rice. As for the interview, I've no issues with him being angry and highlighting errors. He's clearly hurt and frustrated and rightly so. As others have pointed out though, our poor performances this season go way beyond individual mistakes. The manager signed a lot of these players, he regularly picks a few of them out of their natural positions and he constantly changes the team and shape, something IMO which certainly contributes to some of the errors. The switch around the hour mark yesterday left us wide open for example, and is it a great surprise we struggle to defend balls into the box when CB shape and personnel keeps changing. So the question about formations was absolutely valid and fair play to LeodhasXD for asking it, not an easy thing to do at all. 11 warriors next week would be good but even warriors need a coherent plan when they go into battle. Let's hope it's not a case of lions led by donkeys.

Funny that folk who are watching Alloa games every week might have a better idea of what's going on . Don't want to repeat my whole post from match thread but the starting shape of 4-1-3-2 was an improvement. Someone else to help out Stevie would have been better still but we did look more compact and like a joined up team with some attacking threat, the three attacking midfielders key to that threat. All that was undone by basic defensive mistakes. Debayo didn't look comfortable at LB. As for the rest, any defence and goalie as a unit need a run of games to get used to each other, otherwise they will struggle with fundamental things like balls into the box. I would still have been happy enough had we repeated something like the first-half performance after the break and at least got used to that shape and had something to build on for the weeks ahead. The switches around the hour were bizarre, not just putting Devenney on the right but totally changing the formation. We were absolutely wide open thereafter - to the extent that we were opened up down the middle by a simple defensive header. There was no shape and the players didn't seem to know what they were supposed to be doing. Final score flattered us and we're no closer to having a settled side either. We got away with the constant tinkering last season, probably due to having enough experienced heads and good players to just about keep us ticking over. With so many new faces (questions persist over the recruitment of some of them) and nothing being allowed to settle there was always the danger of things going wrong. Hard to be overly optimistic as the manager appears unlikely to change his style. 8 defeats in last 9 games at the Recs between end of last season and start of this one, a really grim stat.

Ultimately dispiriting again. The change to 4-1-3-2 was an improvement on what we were doing but still not enough as we needed someone else in the deeper midfield role. But it was better and we did look more compact in the first half while also carrying some threat. The move for the Scougall chance (and shot he had just before that) was really good. All that was then undermined by dreadful defending for both goals. Debayo clearly not a LB. The rest of the defence didn't defend balls into the box, albeit I'd cut them some slack given they haven't had a chance to establish partnerships or any kind of settled shape with the constant changes. Second half didn't start particularly well but fell apart after the change of shape around an hour, after which we had no coherent shape at all. Players clearly didn't know what was going on and lucky it was only four. Again, there's a good team in there but we're miles off finding it. Suspect there are tough times ahead. Hard to say exactly where Falkirk are given how easy those goals were, like a couple of other games already this season we were easily beaten without making the opposition work particularly hard. But 4-1 away is always going to be very welcome. Interesting too to see MacIver finish a one on one so nicely. His lack of composure in those situations was his one clear weakness with Alloa. I wasn't sure he could overcome that but that was a beautiful finish. If he can do that in those situations consistently he can really kick on as the rest of his game is really good. Hope he can, such a hard working player and deserves to succeed. Edit to add -is that 8 defeats in last 9 competitive home games? Wonder how many Alloa teams have managed that.

Ironically that record was smashed later in the 20s by an English footballing superstar with very strong Alloa connections. More on this and lots more in the match programme today I believe .

Hard to be too optimistic about Alloa given our generally very poor performances in League Cup and league so far. Desperately need some consistency in team selection and key players in their best positions. An improved performance tomorrow would be a step in the right direction, regardless of the final score. Funnily enough I was doing some research earlier on and came across this 1923/24 season preview: "It must be the aim of the Bairns to atone for the disappointments of the past, and their target must be the League Championship Flag.... In the past that honour has been literally snatched from the grasp of the Bairns and bitter indeed has been the disappointment thereat. Last season perhaps, was the most distressing failure of all..... Aware of the grouses and grumbles about past performances, the players, I think may be relied upon to push their sleeves right back, and put forward their every effort to redeem themselves in the eyes of a disgruntled and sometimes very outspoken crowd". So there we are, the Falkirk players and fans of recent times are clearly just keeping old traditions alive.

Is he a good prospect? We are in desperate need of an attacker with a bit of pace and intelligent movement.

You could make a case that Sammon's tally vindicated playing MacIver with him for chunks of the season. Was that the key for Sammon getting those goals? Not convinced. And how much did we miss out on by failing to get the best out of our creative attacking midfielders. That's where MacIver can excell, even if he isn't scoring loads. Scougall in particular is a gem of a player for this level but we never consistently make the most of him, or indeed LD or wee Kev. With Sammon and MacIver we invariably ended up just hitting balls towards them rather than using the creative talents of those midfielders. Killie fans will tell you too that Sammo was at his best with a playmaker right behind him rather than as a targetman. Sammon/MacIver not a particularly effective partnership for me and at times pretty hard to watch! Did think the shape of the team in the second half at Kelty last week was an improvement and had most of our key men in areas of the field where they are most effective. Something like that tomorrow would be welcome.

The idea that two up is automatically more attacking is just flawed. I've said it a few times but our teams with 1 up under Ross, Goodwin and Grant were far more attacking and effective than anything we've done with 2 up over the past 18 months. That's not to say 2 up can't work but we haven't done it well under Brian Rice and we're currently short up front too. Interesting to see Ross MacIver getting good reviews at this early stage at Falkirk, apparently playing as the 1 up top and linking effectively with those behind and bringing them into play. We invariably played him as part of a two with Sammon which wasn't particularly effective. There was often a big gap between midfield and attack and lots of long balls punted towards the two attackers. He'd probably have been far more effective in a 4-2-3-1 and would have helped get more out of the creative midfielders than we ever managed. It's perhaps symbolic of the manager that he identified a player with potential, got him for free and gave him loads of games, but couldn't settle on a shape or partner that best utilised his talents.

I think there is an element of truth in this. Going through the Stirling team it's still mainly the League Two side and doesn't look particularly strong on paper. I was impressed in the two games against Alloa though with how they set up, really solid and well organised and with some kind of attacking threat when they got up the park. They were all also obviously pulling together. Against an Alloa side struggling to find any coherent shape that was enough for two narrow wins. It will be enough to keep them up comfortably I'd say and the plan will surely be to add more quality as the go on. But against the better League One sides, teams who actually carry an attacking threat, and particularly if those teams get ahead early and put the onus on Stirling to go at them and create, I don't think it's any great surprise if they struggle in those circumstances. I'd expect Alloa to struggle against Falkirk on Saturday too.

@Ian McleodOf course Brian Rice has added some good players. Others not as successful and there are questions about a few of the latest ones but still early in terms of judging them. Overall though I'd say his recruitment at Alloa has been solid and one of his strengths. Other parts of his management are more up for debate. As for last season I was mainly taking issue with your point that it was "incredible". He inherited some very capable players and was well backed to add to them. He did a solid job and deserved credit for finishing 4th, but in reality it was a pretty average Alloa team in a poor league rather than the wonderful against the odds story you seem to be suggesting. He certainly had terrible luck with injuries in the play-offs that made the second leg an impossible task. The first leg however had seen him put key men like Scott Taggart and Kevin Cawley back in their natural positions and Alloa played very well. Both were moved out of those positions for the second leg before any of the injuries hit. Cawley, a classy creative forward player, was destroyed on the right side of defence. Those are the kind of decisions that undermine Rice's Alloa teams. Similarly our poor performances so far this season aren't down to us needing 2 or 3 players as you suggest but rather the way we have deployed the players we already have. You are clearly a massive fan of Rice and that's fair enough, but it's not unreasonable for Alloa fans to reasonably and fairly scrutinise his performance based on what they watch every week.

I am well aware of Peter Grant's struggles at Dunfermline but based on his time at Alloa he certainly wasn't "levels" below Brian Rice as you claimed. The team he had just when Covid finished the season early was miles ahead of anything we've had since. He inherited good players but he added some good ones too and had us looking like a very well balanced side and good to watch. As for last season, we were always aiming for the play-offs and we were aided in making them by QoS being abysmal and Montrose going backwards. I know you are big a fan of Rice but in reality it was solid effort in the end to finish 4th and certainly not "an incredible job". The team had obvious limitations that were never addressed. Bit of a missed opportunity IMO in a season when the standard of the league (and semi-final play-off opponents) weren't very good. And once again, he won't be in any danger of getting sacked, that's not the way Alloa work.

4-2-3-1 or something like it suits what we have. We are short on proven out and out and strikers right now but in Scougall, Donnelly and Cawley we have excellent creative options for League One who could make a terrific three behind a striker. You'd also have the option of the likes of Coulson, O'Donnell and Buchanan for slightly different threats in that three. For the deeper two we have very strong DM options in Hetherington and Virtanan, with the option too of pulling Scougall deeper beside one of them (like Flanny next to Stevie) or O'Donnell if we feel the two together is overly defensive at times. With the creative men in front, I wouldn't worry too much about being too defensive in the deeper two. And Roberts could slot in there too if we were looking for more energy. Taggs always flourished getting up from RB in that shape and I'm sure Devenney could settle into it. And I'm not convinced the 3 CBs suits the players we have added. A compact two - ideally I'd try Neil and Devine and let them develop a partnership - would be tighter (and have better protection in front with the two deeper midfielders). If we played that shape and gave it a few weeks we'd be up in the top half of the table, even without adding any loans. Get a good striker to play at the top of it and we could be very good indeed. If it does have to be a back three then pick a three and stick with them and play natural wing backs in the wide positions, but we've rarely looked cohesive with that formation over the past 18 months. As it stands we've played 14 games in the last few weeks yet we don't have a settled shape or way of playing, we don't seem to be anywhere nearer establishing settled partnerships in defence or midfield, and we're still using central creative midfielders/attackers at wing back.

Alloa don't do "panic sackings" @Ian Mcleod, our managers always get plenty of time. As for our previous managers, I doubt you'll find anyone making a case for Barry Ferguson. Peter Grant on the other hand, despite making some suspect calls (like all managers) and ultimately getting relegated, did some good work at Alloa. He knew how to set up a team and at times had Alloa playing some very good football in the Championship. Indeed, the last time we consistently looked like a settled, flowing side was under Peter Grant.