A Son of the Rock

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 19/2/22.

Oh dear.

I could say the pitch cost us this. It was in a dreadful state and the winning goal came as a direct result of it when the ball bobbled as loanee goalkeeper Kieran Wright was attempting a clearance from a back pass. The result was a sclaff onto which the Alloa player latched. Despite Kieran forcing him wide (and doing well to avoid conceding a penalty) he managed to score from a very narrow angle. With 7 minutes to go that was us more or less dead.

Alloa, though, were the better team all game, seeming to be able to surmount the conditions and actually pass the ball. They exploited our left a lot and that was where their opener came from.

We came into it towards the end of the first half and the equaliser, a great strike from Paul Paton, was deserved at the time.

I thought that we would keep forcing it in the second half but it was Alloa who started to dominate the game. Even so but for that sclaff it might have been us who stole it. We did pile on pressure near the end with a succession of corners but couldn’t get any efforts on target or through the thicket of defensive bodies.

This is beginning to look very like a relegation season. Incidents like the sclaff tend to happen to doomed teams. Ominously, East Fife have picked up since we beat them.

Peterhead away next Saturday is a must win. A draw will not be enough.