Alloa Athletc vs Forfar

Scottish football is for some unfathomable reason subtly different from the fare offered south of the border. For work related reasons being in Scotland on 14th January means two things. Firstly no possibility of attending Southend versus Brentford and secondly a choice of which Scottish game to see. Geographical reasons suggested two options. East Stirling, consistently the worst side in Scotland were at home to Montrose and Alloa Athletic, very much bottom of division 2 were entertaining Forfar Athletic. Never having been inside Recreation Park in Alloa made the choice an easy one. Scottish football is somehow real and connected with reality. The football is fierce and competitive and the result always matters.
Arriving at the ground at 1pm allowed the option to see if the ground was open and get some photographs before the game. Outside the ground was a pleasant and helpful man who introduced himself as Robert Wilson the safety officer. Not only did he allow me to wander around the ground and take a decent set of photographs but also insisted that I should see the dressing rooms and the boardroom. There must be something about Scottish football and dressing rooms. There was a procession of folk in and out of the boardroom taking a look at the huge table in the centre of the room covered in thick glass and the trophy cabinet with a few treasures within. The only other occasion that this has been offered to me was at Queen of the South, the club in Dumfries. A dressing room looks like another except here there was a huge bowl of bananas next to the goalkeeper’s shirts as a nutritional snack! The next encouraging aspect to Alloa was the presence of a MacDonald’s within 200 yards of the ground!
The ground is one of the more charismatic grounds that I have photographed. What dominates the ground is not the main stand. This modern building essentially has seating that is above the dressing room complex below. There are not so many seats maybe as few as 300. The striking feature is the huge banked terrace opposite. This has some cover at the rear but the majority is uncovered. Behind one goal is a little terracing that has been cut out of the grass banks whereas behind the other goal is terracing that has recently had a small stand built and which the programme informs us has added substantially to the noise levels and the atmosphere. In short I like this ground but why it only has a capacity of just under 4000 is curious. There are two sets of turnstiles open and I would have been the first paying customer to enter the turnstiles designated for away fans. A price of £10 gains admission for an adult and £5 for children. This also is somewhat confusing. Why not charge a minimal amount for children? They are the future of all football clubs and in particular clubs that rely on truly local support such as Alloa Athletic. During the game behind the open terraced end there are a group of around half a dozen rather rascally children, around 10 or 11 years old, who have climbed some structure on the wasteland behind to view the game through the netting that is designed to stop a thousand footballs from ending up in the gardens of houses behind. One of these children somehow gets in midway through the second half and is watching behind the goal for a while before a couple ( not one) of stewards descends upon them and silently removes them gently out of the exit gate in the corner. Does the club not want new fans? Clearly they do not have the money to pay the entrance fees but it might have been a harmless option to allow this youngster to remain in the ground. I do not suppose that the chorus of “run Ricky run…..” from his friends was a helpful addition. There is no segregation in the ground for most matches and no more than 30 Forfar fans were visibly present on the terraces. A club that is nicknamed the “Loons” had a moderately sedate bunch of fans.
Alloa are not having a successful season. They are very much bottom of Division 2 and have won 2 games in the league all season the last home victory coming back on August 6th versus Peterhead and this is in fact their only home victory. Recent league omens are also not good. Prior to this match Alloa have lost their last 10 league games, in six of these games they have conceded 4 goals, in three games three goals and two in the other. Despite this awful season crowds have held up remarkably well. The crowd for that Peterhead game earlier in the season was 507 and this matched today’s attendance of 575. Needless to say the manager’s role changed hands 2 weeks ago and this game represents the first league game that Alan Maitland has been in charge. The programme also reports that other members of the coaching side have left the club as has the Chairman. So change is afoot. Somewhat surprisingly though Alloa drew 1-1 last Saturday with the Scottish Premier side Livingston ( a surprise in itself ) and then won the replay midweek 2-1 at Livingston so there was a positive air around the ground and as Robert Wilson told me “ this is a game that we must get something out of and we might”.
I love watching football from open terraces and this was a fiercely fought game. There were few cynical fouls or challenges and when bad tackles happened they were just that “bad tackles” due to ability and not predetermination. In truth neither side looked classy. Forfar indeed looked like a side third from bottom ( so 8th in a division of only 10 teams to put it into perspective ) who had scored points from 7 of their 19 games, 6 wins and a draw but whom had only managed 26 goals. There were a few chances throughout the game which was played to the beautiful backdrop of mountains, sunshine and mostly clear skies until dusk and darkness arrived towards the end. On a lucky day Alloa might have taken a lead from a desperate goalmouth scramble in the second half but it was not to be. James Evans the Alloa goalkeeper presumably had his share of the half time bananas making a couple of decent saves in the second half, one exceptional one saving with his legs in the style of the old Peter Schmeichel ( recently sacked from his BBC pundits role for not “coming to the point quickly”!). Few individual players caught the eye with the exception of Jose Quitongo, a short black player with dreadlocks who arrived midway through the second half and made things happen. He took on defenders and generally unsettled the Forfar defence. Anything good from Alloa emanated from Jose. The crowd clearly also like him judging by the roars of approval to his entrance to the fray. Luck however was not with Alloa and Forfar scored the only goal in the 87th minute to win the game somewhat fortuitously. A superb curling shot from Charles Connelly beating Evans from most of 30 yards. This defeat almost ensures relegation for Alloa even at this early stage of the season with Forfar third from bottom now 12 points clear and Alloa having only 15 games remaining to save themselves. What might be a better bet is on Alloa gaining promotion next season at the first attempt.
There were a lot of good things about this game that did not necessitate that one watched a feast of skilful football. Not least the good humour of the crowd but also that scrawling through the players names there were few whom were not Scottish. None of this foreign player nonsense on the day when Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 7-0 without a goal being scored by a British player. Where else are you going to find a linesman by the name of Charles Bee? This was an excellent football experience and I have growing suspicion that I would rather be at games such as this than watching glorified nonsense in the Premier League or the Championship. This was honest football and that made the lack of genuine quality quite alright. I hope to be back here again soon. Portends are not good for Alloa in the next few weeks as their next 3 games are against the top three sides whom in total have only lost 10 games this season. Alloa alone have already lost 15.