SPFL Tier 2, Recreation Park, 14/9/13.

A first away win. Excellent.

We dominated the early proceedings, forcing corners early on and only fell out of it a little towards the latter part of the half. Their goalie was troubled just the once though – by a slightly deflected Chris Turner shot – and Jamie Ewings not at all.

The goal had a touch of flukery about it, the ball came back to Mark Gilhaney after a corner, his shot struck Andy Graham who was still up in the box. He pivoted and slotted it in. The ball was only in play for two more seconds before half-time!

Second half they tried to keep the ball and suck us out but we resisted until we could flow forward. Nevertheless Jamie Ewings had to make a good save. Their equaliser had a similar touch of flukery to our goal, the ball rebounding to their player after the corner came over, with much the same result.

That gave them a bit of confidence and they started to press a bit more. Jamie Ewings had another good save (after an unbelievable point blank one from an offside player) but we continued to look menacing in attack. One great cross from Paul McGinn in particular.

The winner came when Andy Graham was demolished in the box. Scott Agnew buried the penalty.

Alloa ended up running out of ideas and resorted to humping the ball upfield, moving ex-Son Ben Gordon up front from centre half towards the end but really never creating anything.

2-1 but not many clear-cut chances. I’ll take it though.

Pass marks for everybody but Chris Turner wasn’t as effective as usual and could have talked himself into a sending-off. He was subbed, possibly as a precaution. Garry Fleming put himself about to good effect when he came on.

6^th! Not bad, and only one point off 2^nd.

Scottish League Cup*, The Rock, 4/8/12.

A win and a clean sheet. It took us some time last season to achieve either of those – and this was a cup match, where our record has been none too strong for too many seasons now.

Still, this was against lower league opposition and we didn’t look that much better than them. I suspect the Wee Rovers will struggle in Div 2 as they didn’t look to have much of a cutting edge. We will struggle in Div 1, ditto.

We started off well but didn’t create much in the way of clear-cut chances then let them into it and they had a fair bit of possession in the first half. Our midfield seemed non-existent at times. Perhaps we’re making too much of Jim Lister’s ability with the high ball. The opener just before half time came from a corner, Brian Prunty reacting to the knockdown in the box – which may have come off their keeper or a defender (it was up the other end and difficult to make out.)

We were more in control in the second half. Jim Lister was one on one with the keeper after a horrible defensive mistake but shot it straight at him. Rovers have one of the smallest goalkeepers I can remember but he made a brilliant reaction save from Prunty a few minutes before we scored again. Another defensive mistake was pounced on by sub Mark Gilhaney (Scott Agnew had had a poor game before being hoiked) who squared it into Jim Lister’s path for a nice controlled finish.

Jamie Lyden was given the right back berth. He had an encouraging start last season at Brechin and East Fife, scoring in both games before losing his way and not featuring again. His confidence looked low to begin with here but I thought he came onto a game.

Andy Graham and Alan Lithgow were more solid at centre-back than last week but will be tested more severely when the league starts.

On to the real stuff next week.

*Okay: it’s the Scottish Communities League Cup now.

SFL Challenge Cup, The Rock, Round 1, 29/7/12.

Why do we bother entering this competition? We’ve only ever won about two games in it in its entire existence. Even newish boys Annan Athletic have a better record in it than us. East Stirlingshire and Elgin City too.

The first half was dominated by QoS. Stephen Grindlay made three good saves in the first fifteen minutes and QoS had another good chance which the boy volleyed wide. Their keeper didn’t have a save to make until just about the last kick of the half when an Agnew special made him work.

The second half was more even but our two best openings fell to James Creaney and the keeper was up to both of them. Otherwise there was a slow motion scramble on their goal line after a corner and that was about it for us. Midway through the half the game lost all cohesion with both sides resorting to balls over the top and it was from one of these that QoS scored, their tricky no 11 cutting out Grindlay with a ball back for an unopposed header. A similar incident earlier had seen their player miss what amounted to an open goal.

We lacked penetration and punch though Jim Lister can hold the ball up and win headers. I liked the look of Phil Johnston when he came on for Mark Gilhaney, willing to take on the defender and run.

The new strip is cracking though.

QoS have just been relegated from the Division we’re now in and we looked way off them.

It says it all that Stephen Grindlay won man of the match. I wouldn’t disagree.

I can console myself with the thought that we usually start slowly. We night need our usual post-Christmas good run desperately.

Edited to add:- I meant to put in that the new centre back pairing (Alan Lithgow with Andy Graham) was a bomb scare throughout. In particular Andy Graham looked very uncertain and it seemed to infect Lithgow.