The Citizens v The Wasps

[printer]

48 minutes ago, LeodhasXD said:

Assume its on the phone for the advertiser but it's Niall (Pronounced Neil) Marshall if you want to give him a Google. Was Stirling Albion head of youth development.

Ta.

[Magic Hat]

Oh dear, oh dear, not the start we were looking for from the Andy Graham tenure. 

Andy is the best defender I have ever seen at Alloa and hopefully in January he brings in players to enhance the defence.

The last two weeks have been a big improvement but that has brought us back down to earth.

Probably never wanted a manager to succeed as much as I do with Andy but he has a tough job and has been left some very poor players by Brian Rice.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Magic Hat

[TxRover]

How did McNeil look for EC? Obviously the clean sheet looks good, but he challenged at all?

[Waspie]

7 minutes ago, TxRover said:

How did McNeil look for EC? Obviously the clean sheet looks good, but he challenged at all?

Not sure he really had a save to make to be honest. 

Strangely subdued performance from Alloa. Looked like we moved to a 4-2-3-1? Been calling that for a long time - in particular earlier in the season when our forward options were very limited - and interesting that Andy immediately went with that. Probably an argument for sticking with the other shape given we had finally settled into it and were looking better, but also the right call if that's his plan moving forward. We never really got going but very little went for us either with City scoring a screamer then converting pretty much the only other chances they had. 3-0 didn't reflect the play but City were very deserving winners. They were tight at the back and clinical in attack, whereas Alloa were too easily opened up, slow and predictable going forward, and failed to stick away the couple of chances in the second half that would have given us a chance of making a game of it. I don't think we'll be that poor again though, the team does need strengthened but it's still capable of so much better than we saw today. 

Bad day at the office and a learning experience for the new gaffer. Maybe Edinburgh City away was a bad place to start given Alloa have a tradition of shite performances there going back to the 1930s. 

I'm sure Dunbar will be fancying themselves after watching that and we'll need to be much better next week. 

[AllyMonc]

Best we've been in a long long time. 3 excellent goals and despite a few hairy moments I never felt we were under any real pressure.

 

Expected a bit more from Alloa but maybe that's credit to our pressing early in the game and then solidity later on.

 

Others will get the plaudits but Lewis Spence is so so good, that assist for the 2nd goal was perfect.

[tamthebam]

McNeill did pull off a good save early on and was solid enough after that.

[AllyMonc]

Oh aye, actually, Alloa should have had a penalty for a pull of the shirt at 2-0. Glad that didn't happen to be honest

[jacobsladder]

5 minutes ago, AllyMonc said:

Best we've been in a long long time. 3 excellent goals and despite a few hairy moments I never felt we were under any real pressure.

 

Expected a bit more from Alloa but maybe that's credit to our pressing early in the game and then solidity later on.

 

Others will get the plaudits but Lewis Spence is so so good, that assist for the 2nd goal was perfect.

Totally agree - almost a shock to see the guys play good and was really impressed with the new attitude Michael has introduced- we just want to see the guys get stuck in 

Referree was equally rotten to both sides - he decided early on he wanted to be the star of the show and was very whistle happy 

biggest shock tho was Russel McClean our own version of Peter Crouch actually control a ball and head a ball right - wonders will never cease 

 

[printer]

16 minutes ago, Waspie said:

Not sure he really had a save to make to be honest. 

Strangely subdued performance from Alloa. Looked like we moved to a 4-2-3-1? Been calling that for a long time - in particular earlier in the season when our forward options were very limited - and interesting that Andy immediately went with that. Probably an argument for sticking with the other shape given we had finally settled into it and were looking better, but also the right call if that's his plan moving forward. We never really got going but very little went for us either with City scoring a screamer then converting pretty much the only other chances they had. 3-0 didn't reflect the play but City were very deserving winners. They were tight at the back and clinical in attack, whereas Alloa were too easily opened up, slow and predictable going forward, and failed to stick away the couple of chances in the second half that would have given us a chance of making a game of it. I don't think we'll be that poor again though, the team does need strengthened but it's still capable of so much better than we saw today. 

Bad day at the office and a learning experience for the new gaffer. Maybe Edinburgh City away was a bad place to start given Alloa have a tradition of shite performances there going back to the 1930s. 

I'm sure Dunbar will be fancying themselves after watching that and we'll need to be much better next week. 

Surprised the manager changed formation (if he did). Maybe an attempt to mitigate the loss of Wales? or accommodate Scougs? I assume Steven was wide left in the three.

As you say, Waspie, a learning experience for Andy G. I'm sure there will be a lot more of those in the coming months. 

[printer]

15 minutes ago, jacobsladder said:

Totally agree - almost a shock to see the guys play good and was really impressed with the new attitude Michael has introduced- we just want to see the guys get stuck in 

Referree was equally rotten to both sides - he decided early on he wanted to be the star of the show and was very whistle happy 

biggest shock tho was Russel McClean our own version of Peter Crouch actually control a ball and head a ball right - wonders will never cease 

 

You're right mate, that's exactly what happened.

[LeodhasXD]

Just cos I'm early.

[RubyTuesday]

Back from the game, a deserved victory for City and its been a long time since we were able to say that. Fonts and Lee Hamilton looked pretty solid at the back, lets hope they stay injury free. 

Anyone know why the young team left early? They were squaring up to some Alloa yoof outside McDonalds so clearly hadn't been called home for tea. 

 

[Bay Citizen]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

How did McNeil look for EC? Obviously the clean sheet looks good, but he challenged at all?

Don’t know if you’ve seen it already, despite the score, it might be worth watching our highlights from last week against Falkirk.  McNeil with a very deserving fans MOTM performance.

[Kevchenko]

Bitterly disappointing result which stalls a bit of the momentum that had been gathering. 
 

Probably was a 4231 but Buchanan and Steven were pushed very high and very wide and pretty much became a front three that was stretched across the entire width of the pitch - meant Scougall (who I thought played well) was the only real support Roy was getting and had to support further forward, leaving Hetherington and Roberts a little light in the middle of the pitch. Also thought the extreme width nullified Taggs and Deveney a bit, although being in a back four there’s probably a little less onus on them to get forward compared to in the 3/5. Did think Taylor Steven was wasted out wide though. 
 

Dunbar management team were there watching so hopefully lulled them in to a false sense of security ahead of next week!

Edited November 18, 2023 by Kevchenko

[LeodhasXD]

 

[AlloaAdam]

Thought we actually started the game well and if we score when Roberts hit the post just before the goal then it could’ve been a different game. Fair play to the Edinburgh boy it was a peach for the first and well taken for the second as much as it was far too easy from our point of view. Second half we huffed and puffed a bit too much and got a bit desperate rather than trying to be patient and wait for an opening. 
 

We played a lot more on the deck today and we saw flashes of good play at times, albeit not enough. Roy seemed to really struggle on his own up there and nothing really came off for him, and Steven isn’t really a winger. Think 3-0 was a bit harsh but overall Edinburgh deserved it, they were a lot better than I expected, will be surprised if they finish 10th this season.

[Rory]

Seems strange to change the formation given we'd been playing well with it. Although if we'd won 3-0, it'd have been called a masterstroke. Must be hard, especially for part time players, to prepare to play a different position in a week. It's not often a manager takes over a team playing well so must be tough choosing between sticking with what the team were doing or changing to your own ideas.

From the highlights, Devenney looks partly to blame for two goals. Third goal looks like no one told him the man coming behind him and second goal looks like he never passed Mahon on.

Hopefully a good win against Dunbar next weekend.