AlloaAdam

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.

Yeah I did listen and you are right he does raise some valid points. I think my main issue with Sammon is I don't know what he's actually up there to do. MacIver win's flick ons and drops deep to get on the ball, whereas Sammon doesn't run in behind, he doesn't win headers, he doesn't have a good enough first touch to hold the ball in and isn't good enough at linking the play to drop deeper. Just think we'd be much better off with an additional midfielder to play off the striker and allow us to have more control of games.

As am I. There’s this constant debate about who should be playing alongside MacIver but as far as I’m concerned he should be up there as a lone striker with an additional attacking midfielder in behind alongside Coulson (Cawley, O’Donnell, Donnelly etc.). Sammon has too many off weeks to make it worthwhile having him in the team in case he has one of his games out of 10 where he is excellent, and more often than not is worse than a man short.

And me please

Think today has made it clear that we are a much better side with a back 4 and a much better side when Conor Sammon isn’t in it. Looked a lot more comfortable with 4 at the back and Robertson and King in front of it, and MacIver was a different player when he had Donnelly up with him (who was excellent when he came on). I think I’d start next week with the team we started the second half with, Scougall was much better when further up the pitch as well, something we saw glimpses of at the start of the season before he’s been gradually moved deeper again. A good win today and probably a deserved one, next week isn’t going to define our season but would be good to pick something up to get a run going.

Would also like to add about Hogarth, I can’t remember the last time he actually made a mistake leading to a goal. The last couple of months especially I think he’s been excellent and while I’d agree that coming for crosses isn’t his biggest strength he doesn’t stick to his line and still comes to try and take the pressure off the defence. We were blessed by having 6ft5 Neil Parry for a while which was probably his biggest strength.

Saying all you want is a successful Alloa while also saying you won't be back to support the team while Rice is here, a team that no matter what you think of his tactics is a point off the playoffs, is a contradiction. No matter the tactics on the pitch the players still need support from the sides and staying away solves nothing. Was blatantly obvious today that playing 2 in midfield against probably the best footballing side was never going to work and he should have changed it when Airdrie were missing sitter after sitter at 1-0 to put an extra body in midfield. Jon Robertson, despite being poor with his distribution today and very negative, was completely exposed and had a thankless task trying to handle Airdrie's attacking midfielder's who had all the space in the world. I'm as pissed off as everyone else is at today's performance, an annoying occurence away at Airdrie over the last few seasons, but having only lost 2 of our last 11 in the league it's not as bad or as much of a crisis as it has been made out by some on here. As far as I'm concerned we still quite obviously need a striker as Conor Sammon is pretty hopeless (regardless of his goal stats this season) and I reckon we need a holding midfielder as well to add a bit of bite. We're still well in the mix and there's a long way to go, a back 4 with 2 actual centre half's at some point would be nice though!

I’m sure the players will miss your positive outlook.

Well that was unexpected, second half was absolutely sensational; best we’ve played all season. Much more pressing and aggression than the first half and a few great finishes in there. Play like that more often than not and we’ll be right up there.

Delighted to be level at half time, that was dreadful. Getting a bit bored of Brian Rice picking our defence out of a hat every week right enough.

Trying to count how many passes we’ve put together, think we got up to 5 just before half time there

Last 2 games have been pretty poor but can’t help thinking we’re not far away from being a decent side who’ll be up there. Still think Scougall should be playing in behind the front 2, he was far more effective when he was in there at the start of the season than he has been in the last few weeks - MacIver isn’t good enough on the ball to be in there. Big 2 games coming up for us, 4 points would be an excellent and much needed return from them with an easier run of games coming after.

Outside of that Couldn't really tell what happened from our end but seemed like it was just one of those freak goals that happen to keepers all the time, would need to see it again to see how badly he was at fault.

Didn't think we were great by any stretch but thought we deserved a draw out of that, didn't do enough in front of goal to deserve a victory. We were pretty solid at the back and as much as MacIver and Sammon won a fair amount of flick ons, they are too similar and never really felt they were going to lead to a clear cut opportunity. Would need to see the header off the line and especially the penalty again (which looked stonewall), but we didn't really test Mehmet enough. Been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but Church is absolutely hopeless. He doesn't tackle, he can't stop crosses and he constantly turns back when going forward or his crosses hit the first man. Was clear today that dunfermline's tactic was to get the ball onto their right wing to get at him and it worked to an extent, but felt Stanger was excellent today and dealt with the crosses well. Replacing Church is equally as big a priority as a striker IMO. On the positive side Scougall was good again today, Hogarth had another good game and Cawley seems to be fitting in well at RWB and was excellent again today, particularly first half. There's the making of a decent team there that can challenge for the play-offs, but if we don't get a striker in then we're in for a lot of frustrating afternoons I fear.

Was that not a stonewall penalty on Sammon? Looked one from here, granted 100 yards away

1. Falkirk 2. Alloa 3. Airdrie 4. Dunfermline 5. QotS 6. Montrose 7. Kelty Hearts 8. FC Edinburgh 9. Clyde 10. Peterhead

I’d be shocked if Hogarth wasn’t brought in to be number 1, can’t see why rangers would loan him out to sit on our bench. I’d argue that keepers being an entirely different proposition adds to the argument of not having a 17 year old as the back up as it’s not really fair to have to chuck him in if needed when he may not be ready for this level either technically or more likely physically. For teams like us, like it or not, loans from the big 2 (or any other premiership team for that matter) are our best chance at success. I don’t see why it’s any different to a player coming in on a 1 year deal and going to a full time club for nothing the next season anyway.

Think if we can take anything from that tonight it’s that Sam Ramsbottom should be nowhere near our goal ever again. Dreadful.

No great loss IMO. Incredibly frustrating to watch him continually cut onto his right foot and lose the ball on the edge of the box, and liked to go in a huff and hide more often than not. Plenty better options out there for me.

LOL

Russell McLean anyone? Think I’d take a punt on him, reckon he’d bag a few more goals than sammon.

In the same way that Kevin Cawley has been here during poor periods as well as the good, I can’t imagine you saying that continuity isn’t a good thing with him, seeing as exactly the same as Paddy he’s given his all for the club and had more success than failure. Paddy has stepped up to take the team when managers have moved on despite making it very clear that he had no interest in being the manager at any point, and for that he deserves respect and thanks for his effort for the club. If he goes, he should go with everyone’s best wishes and would be a big loss. Don’t think anyone is trying to say that the upturn in form was down to Paddy, but even Rice himself has said how important Paddy has been in helping give Rice an understanding of the squad and allowing him to hit the ground running.

Am I missing something, why is Paddy leaving a good thing (if true)? Been a terrific servant for over 10 years and we’ve had some great times while he’s been here under several different managers.

If we beat Cove on saturday I reckon we're in with a real shout. Queens Park can't beat anyone and Falkirk are dreadful, with the new manager bounce and the players playing with a bit of freedom and confidence, 8 points in 10 games with a game against Queens Park still to come doesn't seem impossible to me.

After basically a perfect start, that was one of the worst performances of the season, and there's been plenty. Stood off East Fife far too often and while I felt the penalty was harsh, the goal was deserved and had been coming for about half an hour at that point. Wasn't sure about the pass-back but Hutton could easily have just launched it and there would have been no issue, totally avoidable. Second half was an embarrassment with just hopeful long balls to a 5ft 6 winger playing up front and very little creativity and ideas. Why the manager continually picks 3 holding midfielders with no creativity, while leaving our best holding midfielder on the bench and putting our 2 most creative players on either wings and leaving them totally isolated is beyond me. Just leads to us totally bypassing Cawley and Scougall and punting the ball and hoping for the best. IMO we're now at the point where if Mulraney doesn't sack him then the blame for this disaster of a season shifts from Ferguson to Mulraney - the writing has been on the wall for weeks/months, and action is now needed imminently if we're to rescue this shambles.