Alloa 4 Stenhousemuir 1: Warriors road form hits the skids

Brown Ferguson’s side went into the game on the back of consecutive away victories including a 3-0 win at Hampden against Queen’s Park, but found themselves 1-0 down inside eight minutes.

A poor David Crawford goal-kick found Kevin Cawley and his headed pass set Greig Spence clean through to slot calmly into the bottom right-hand corner.

Stenny kept themselves in the game in the early stages and were denied a spot-kick on 12 minutes which Brown Ferguson described as ‘an absolute stonewall penalty’.

On 17 minutes Alan Cook was chipped through on goal only to be clattered by Alloa keeper Neil Parry as he attempted to lob the stopper. Cook left the field on a stretcher and Ferguson later confirmed that the forward had been concussed.

That seemed to affect Stenny as they went 2-0 behind on 28 minutes. A corner from Calum Waters was flicked on by player-manager Jim Goodwin and nodded in by centre half Andy Graham.

As has been the case too often for the Warriors this season, one goal quickly followed another as Jamie Longworth made it three on 35 minutes. Greig Spence’s initial effort rattled the crossbar and the winger was there to head into an empty net on his Alloa return.

Stenhousemuir reacted quickly to the setback, pulling a goal back within seconds of kick-off. Mark Gilhaney’s crossfield ball was nodded into the path of Alistair Roy by Colin McMenamin and he worked space before slotting into the bottom corner.

Before half-time there was a further injury setback for Stenny. Goalkeeper Crawford appeared to pull a muscle clearing the ball and had to be replaced by Colin McCabe.

The second-half, predictably, failed to produce as much action as the first. Stenhousemuir’s only clear-cut chance of the entire 45 fell to Kieran Millar who was denied at close range by Parry.

On the hour mark, Kevin Cawley sealed the inevitable win for the Wasps as his strike from 20 yards found the top corner, although McCabe may feel he could have done better.

Swarms of Wasps’ attacks continued for the last half hour, with Jim Goodwin’s side not content to rest at 4-1, fortunately for Stenny Jordan Kirkpatrick and Adam Martin failed to add to the scoreline.

“We were 3-1 up at half-time and I was having a go at the boys to be honest with you. We didn’t reach the levels we are capable of reaching,” said Wasps boss Jim Goodwin.

“It was a sore one today,” admitted Brown Ferguson, “we are licking our wounds – obviously at the result but also with some of the knocks we picked up.

“Opening 25 minutes it was fairly competitive, I was quite happy with how we started the game. Alloa go 1-0 up through a mistake. The goals we conceded we poor, at 4-1 down in the second half we looked a beaten team.”