Conor Sammon strikes to seal three points for Alloa

ALLOA earned their first win of the league campaign on Saturday, with a second-half goal from Conor Sammon seeing off newly-promoted Stenhousemuir.

Andy Graham made two changes from the side that drew 3-3 with Dumbarton the week before – Kurtis Roberts coming in for Miko Virtanen and Sammon replacing the injured Luke Rankin.

The opening exchanges were fairly even between the two sides – Alloa seeing more of the ball but the visitors having clearer chances.

The Warriors’ high press troubled Alloa at times as they tried to play out from the back, with the hosts almost punished as PJ Morrison’s attempted pass finds Matty Aitken, Stenhousemuir’s number 9 drives forward and tries to drill the ball into the bottom corner but Morrison makes the save.

Stenhousemuir’s Euan O’Reilly would create the best chance of the half after a lovely defence splitting pass finds Aitken, who goes one on one with Morrison but is denied by the Wasps stopper.

Up the other end, Alloa’s best chance came as Roberts slips the ball high over to Kane Thomson, his cross into the box is met by Kevin Cawley.

Cawley streaks forward and strikes but his effort is inches wide from scoring the opener. Morrison made a vital fingertip save to sweep the ball away from the danger area as O’Reilly was waiting to poke home the first goal of the day.

“Always pleased to win and get three points,” Graham said. “We can still improve on our performance levels.

“I’m pleased for the players because it’s never easy to win games in the league and Stenny have that bounce from getting promoted so we always knew it’d be a tough game.

“That’s exactly what it was – the first half, we were as poor as we’ve been on the ball, we looked nervy and not like ourselves.

“The second half, the subs made a bit of an impact and the goal came from us making three or four short passes because that’s what we’re good at.

“We do that, we get the goal and we got a lift from that and over the next 10 minutes, we started to create things and look dangerous.

“Really pleased with that side of things and the group are in good condition and are really fit so at times if it’s a draw or 0-0 in the game, I will always back us to create chances and get opportunities.

“We did that today so delighted with that – it’s another clean sheet to build on and we spoke about that but I think we can play a bit more and be a bit braver and that was my frustration.”

No changes at the break for either side but Alloa’s subs bench did prove to be the difference, with the introduction of Morgyn Neill, Cammy O’Donnell and Stefan Scougall ultimately galvanising Alloa to the win.

Neill provided solidity at the back as Stenhousemuir looked to punish Alloa’s high line with balls over the top; however, the sheer height of the Wasps stopper foiled their efforts.

Scougall settled the game down in midfield, linking up well with O’Donnell with a clever one-two, allowing the winger to send a strong cross into Sammon.

Alloa’s talisman bundled home his effort from O’Donnell’s cross in what would be the only goal of the day.

Graham continued: “Morgyn came on and gave us a bit more solidity as they were bombarding us a bit on that side and there were a few people on bookings that we were worried about.

“All three of the subs came on and impacted the game and we speak about that all the time – even the guys that didn’t come on today, they will have important parts to play.

“It’s important that people know that and understand that they have a role to play in the squad.

“They are impacting games which is great for me as a manager.”

Despite not being a particularly dirty game, the referee was fairly card happy, issuing bookings to no less than six players.

As both teams desperately searched for a winner, Graham’s substitutions were made from a cautious angle as well, hoping to avoid second yellows for Kane Thomson and Kevin Cawley.

Thomson has been a standout since coming in from Queen’s Park over the summer, standing in at right back as Scott Taggart moved into centre half.

His pace and eagerness to drive the ball forward has been difficult for teams to deal with and many of Alloa’s early chances against Stenhousemuir came from his side.

“I thought he has been excellent,” Graham added. “Today, he was around one foul away from a second yellow and that was the concern.

“Kev was similar and we didn’t want to give the ref an opportunity to do that so we thought it was the sensible thing to do, especially when they started to throw a lot at us.

“The changes were made for good intent and good reason and it’s important for the players to know that.

“I’m delighted with the impact they showed but I’m also delighted with the squad performance because getting wins is never easy in the league and we’ve managed to do that today.”

Alloa go on the road for back to back away fixtures this month, firstly to Annan and then to Arbroath.

Annan have started the league as one of the more in-form teams so far, earning wins over Cove Rangers and Inverness before losing out to local rivals Queen of the South.