The Alloa Athletic Thread

[OldCrabbitWasp]

Watched the last few games and goalkeeper, defence and midfield look to give us a solid base. My concern is we have shown nothing in attack and the front two of Rodden and Sammon look lost and are stealing a jersey. Coulson is the only one who looks to open up teams but it’s not enough. We need two, maybe even three new attacking options, hopefully Brian can find a gem or two which I know ain’t easy. I initially thought we were top 4 but if we go with what we have then all I see is mid table mediocrity. 

[Magic Hat]

2 hours ago, LeodhasXD said:

Fairly sure Taggart has been saying next week since the beginning of pre-season. Donnelly I've not seen do too much running so assume he's worse off.

Thanks Lewis, at least sounds positive for Taggart.

If Donnelly is going to be out for a while makes it even more important we bring in new striking options.

The man that scored today for St Johnstone and Ross Stewart both played for us in the bottom two divisions, over to you Mr Rice, no pressure.

[Dink]

I only managed to catch bits and pieces of the stream but did we start with 4 at the back with Virtanen and O'Donnell as the full backs? If so it's a shape and combination that we've barely seen in pre-season, and it feeds into my worries about Rice's tendency to tinker and play people out of position.

[printer]

2 hours ago, Dink said:

I only managed to catch bits and pieces of the stream but did we start with 4 at the back with Virtanen and O'Donnell as the full backs? If so it's a shape and combination that we've barely seen in pre-season, and it feeds into my worries about Rice's tendency to tinker and play people out of position.

I thought it was more a back three with Virtanen on the right of that, Cawley and Cammy O'D wide of the midfield four and a front three (although Coulson was dropping deep on the left at times).

ETA Although sometimes it's difficult to tell.

Edited July 23, 2023 by printer

[Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)]

34 minutes ago, printer said:

I thought it was more a back three with Virtanen on the right of that, Cawley and Cammy O'D wide of the midfield four and a front three (although Coulson was dropping deep on the left at times).

ETA Although sometimes it's difficult to tell.

That's the way I saw it too, though obviously when I initially saw the starting 11 I thought we were going 4 4 2.

[Kevchenko]

Thought we were a pretty standard 442 on Saturday - think if it was a back 3 we would have had either Andy or Dave McKay starting. 
 

Despite the level of opposition I thought it was a pretty woeful performance unfortunately. 
 

Will be a little concerned if there’s not a marked improvement on Tuesday night. 

[Magic Hat]

We need to use the last two league cup games to get our fitness, tempo and shape right.

Too early to panic yet but we need to improve before the league starts.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Magic Hat

[Rory]

It looks a bit like we've put all our eggs into one basket and hoping to get a decent striker in on loan. Don't think the way we handled Offord last season will do any favours.

Think the league will be fairly tight this year, don't see it having two poor teams at the bottom again.

[printer]

12 hours ago, Kevchenko said:

Thought we were a pretty standard 442 on Saturday - think if it was a back 3 we would have had either Andy or Dave McKay starting. 
 

Despite the level of opposition I thought it was a pretty woeful performance unfortunately. 
 

Will be a little concerned if there’s not a marked improvement on Tuesday night. 

This is Chipper we are talking about.

[printer]

2 hours ago, Rory said:

It looks a bit like we've put all our eggs into one basket and hoping to get a decent striker in on loan. Don't think the way we handled Offord last season will do any favours.

Think the league will be fairly tight this year, don't see it having two poor teams at the bottom again.

I don't think that's deliberate though. If Brian Rice was able to bring in someone good enough to enhance our striker options I'm sure he would have.

He said in a recent interview that four forwards had turned us down in favour of full-time offers. Those might have been for example O'Hara, McIver (who has started well at Falkirk), Henderson and Burrell say.

[Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)]

He also had a look at a trialist or two and decided they werent what we are looking for. He's doing it right, no point in getting bodies in for the sake of it and if all our targets joined full time clubs not a lot he can do. He clearly knows what hes looking for. Donnelly will also make a significant contribution in the final third when he returns.

League Cup section games are rarely a barometer of league prospects. Despite the reputation the manager maybe has for overly tinkering with his teams, it seemed fairly clear the lineup against St Johnstone was more about giving everyone an outing and assessing rather than picking the absolute strongest starting 11.

[Kevchenko]

57 minutes ago, printer said:

He said in a recent interview that four forwards had turned us down in favour of full-time offers. Those might have been for example O'Hara, McIver (who has started well at Falkirk), Henderson and Burrell say.

I reckon that could be pretty close to being the 4 we were potentially after to be honest. 
 

Always going to be hard competing with the offer of full time football and that’s always going to work against us. 
 

Looking around what the other part time teams have brought in I think Hester is probably the only striker that stands out as one we have ‘missed’ so to speak, but there were obviously a lot of off field issues there and Montrose paid a fee (£30k rumoured?). Suppose you could look at Dale Hilson as another. 
 

In the division I would say there are ourselves, Edinburgh and maybe Kelty of the PT sides still needing a goal scorer (although Daramola may see to that at Kelty!) and wouldn’t be surprised to see Cove, Falkirk and especially QoS in the market as well - will be a competitive loan window. 

[Ian Mcleod]

1 hour ago, printer said:

I don't think that's deliberate though. If Brian Rice was able to bring in someone good enough to enhance our striker options I'm sure he would have.

He said in a recent interview that four forwards had turned us down in favour of full-time offers. Those might have been for example O'Hara, McIver (who has started well at Falkirk), Henderson and Burrell say.

I think Joe Mcglynn who signed for us is likely to be one of them 

[19QOS19]

5 hours ago, Rory said:

It looks a bit like we've put all our eggs into one basket and hoping to get a decent striker in on loan. Don't think the way we handled Offord last season will do any favours.

Think the league will be fairly tight this year, don't see it having two poor teams at the bottom again.

Annan and Edinburgh IMO. 

[Ian Mcleod]

42 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

Annan and Edinburgh IMO. 

I think Edinburgh will get cut adrift and comfortably finish bottom they look far worse than anyone else ATM imo. And either Annan or Kelty will finish 9th. 

[Kevchenko]

That's this week's episode of the podcast up and with things not going well on the park over the last 7 days we decided to talk about anything except Alloa!

 

We take a trip around the other League 1 clubs to talk over their transfers, key men and off field escapades over the close season, and try to predict how the League 1 table may look this year.

 

https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

[Waspie]

I'd guess Steven Boyd was one of the four and he'd certainly have improved our attacking options. Not sure what to make of those comments from the manager. Missing out on four targets to full-time teams shows how difficult the market is, but also raises questions about how realistic those options were. Saying its not just about this window but long term is fair enough, but also then makes you wonder about that long term planning yet we're still going into the league season with one proven attacker. There have certainly been part-time forwards who have moved this summer who would have improved our current striking options so the pressure is on to get really decent loans in. 

I only caught the last half hour of the Stenny game and hard to see from that if the shape was much better. It was a good ball from Roberts to set up Sammo and the big man did well to finish it, very positive to see him off the mark given he is such a confidence player. Good header from Neil too and looks like he'll be a real threat from set pieces. Buchanan's finish was also very good - I wouldn't mind seeing him get a shot further up the field. A few positives to build on and hopefully we can give Ayr a decent game at the weekend to set us up for the league opener. 

[Kevchenko]

Good to see a bit of a positive reaction last night. Thought we looked pretty solid defensively and would say that’s the best McKay has looked since he joined. Morgyn Neill looks like he could be an absolute standout this season, kind of guy you would follow in to battle. 
 

The goal we conceded was disappointing - Debayo probably needs to get that hoofed away but also couldn’t hear a big shout from the keeper that he was coming for it. He was pretty vocal other than that and produced some really good saves in the 2nd half. Good size but he also looks like he can get down low really well too. 
 

Delighted for Buchanan getting his first senior goal, which he took really well. He’s had a pretty decent last couple of weeks and if Taggs is unavailable, has put himself in with a shout. 
 

No goal from him last night, but starting to see signs that Rodden is settling back down in to the team. Thought the same with his chance on Saturday as I did with the couple he had last night - he’s looking a bit more composed going through. Whereas previously we have seen really tame efforts or wild shots wide, he’s now forcing the keeper to make saves. Hopefully a goal is just around the corner for him cause I reckon that will give him a huge confidence boost. The 2nd half kick off last night was the perfect way for him and Sammo to link up - Brad needs to be getting the ball out in front of him in behind the defenders, it’s wasted having him with his back to goal. 

[printer]

2 hours ago, Kevchenko said:

Good to see a bit of a positive reaction last night. Thought we looked pretty solid defensively and would say that’s the best McKay has looked since he joined. Morgyn Neill looks like he could be an absolute standout this season, kind of guy you would follow in to battle. 

Agree, but I hope Rice reminds him he's not Franz Beckenbauer. Stick to what you do best Morgyn and don't wander away from the centre of defence too much.

Must admit I'm still a bit concerned about the defence, think we are leaving too much space too often. Of course the combination has changed nearly every game so the first choice unit (whatever that may be) hasn't had a lot of time to gel.

Think we still need a good reader of the game with pace in there. Scott Taggart anyone?

Overall I thought we took another step forward last night. Good to see Sammo get his first competitive goal this season. Thought he and Rodden did OK.

Also delighted for young Buchanan. He's done well so far and deserves a run in the side.

Edited July 26, 2023 by printer

[Kevchenko]

12 minutes ago, printer said:

Agree, but I hope Rice reminds him he's not Franz Beckenbauer.

Dunno, certainly enjoyed him sending Gregor Buchanan for a hot dog when he turned him inside out at the corner flag last night!!