Alloa 1-1 Queen of the South: Visitors pegged back
It had started well enough for the Doonhamers, who led through Derek Lyle’s opener, but Kevin Cawley’s leveller was no more than the Wasps deserved. Indeed, few would argue with home manager Barry Smith’s assessment that his side’s display merited much more.
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Hide Ad“I thought we dominated the game from start to finish and created far more chances,” said Smith. “The pleasing thing is that, having gone behind, we showed the right mentality to get back in it. On another day we would have won.”
Alloa made a bright start and should have found themselves ahead when Liam Buchanan raced on to a through ball and found himself one-on-one with Zander Clark. However, the Queens keeper diverted his shot wide for a corner. Clark was then in action again, diving to save from Cawley.
The Doonhamers, with pace on both flanks, looked dangerous at the other end, where Daniel Carmichael crossed for the unmarked Gavin Reilly. However, his netbound header was blocked by Kyle Benedictus before Iain Russell’s 20 yard effort stung Craig McDowall’s palms.
The home keeper was beaten just before the break when he failed to deal decisively with Reilly’s looping header and Lyle bundled the loose ball home from no more than a yard. Alloa almost hit back on the restart when first Buchanan shot inches wide and then Benedictus ghosted in at the back post, only to for his header to crash off a post.
Cawley should then have done better than to shoot wide as the home side sensed an inexperienced Queens defence start to wilt. The pressure finally paid off on 74 minutes when Cawley found space in the box to toe-poke an effort beyond Clark’s despairing dive. There was still time for either side to win it and Alloa might have done so with a Ryan McCord shot that rose just too high.
Doonhamers manager James Fowler said: “Overall we’re disappointed with the performance. Alloa were always in it and 1-0 and they were able to throw bodies forward and it paid off for them.
“We had a few players missing and it meant there was a bit of inexperience in the ranks. This [and last week’s defeat to Cowdenbeath] are probably two games we’ll look back on as missed opportunities.”
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