Queens v Alloa

[Ftivano1]

Looking forward to Marvin's post match interview as Alloa didn't have to work for any of their goals as we appeared to gift them all. The team were lacklustre and sloppy appearing tired.

Another shambolic opening league display at Palmy for the second year in succession. Like last season against Clyde we went 1 - 0 up only to collapse through some absolutely abysmal defending. The two Queens penalties made the score look close but it wasn't as the Wasps big defenders dominated our wee front players and their manager the vastly experienced Brian Rice had his team right up for it after Ayr Utd. beat them 6 - 0

[Threefivetwo]

Bang on there, the 4 goals were far too easily given away. Although it may have been that Alloa sat back defending their lead in the second half, the team that QoS finished with looked better than the starting eleven.

It might come good, however this knocking the ball about at the back thing isn't working particularly well at the moment. Im not an advocate of pumping it long all the time to small strikers but today just didn't workAlloa, to be fair to Rice, clearly did their homework and pressed high and pressurised quickly in the first half.

The beacon of hope I suppose is, its the first (league) game of the season and, without an outstanding team in the league, most will beat each other throughout.

[Spikefaethesouth]

Always look on the bright side. At half time we were bottom of the league now we are sixth and only three points from the top spot. Mon the South 😉

[jardi]

Unfortunately following my suggestion that Marvin was the next Alex Fergusson, it was his tactical naivety which led to the first half debacle yesterday. He may have been influenced by Alloa ' s 6-0 drubbing and thought they would lie down to us, but my first question is this: why when Alloa have a tall, strong striker in Connor Sammon did he not start Ambrose?
Secondly, why do we play Russian Roulette with opposition forwards by farting about with short passes from the goalkeeper? It is extremely disrespectful to the oppistion and invites trouble....which we got in spades.
At 3-1 down, he should have made a triple substitution to change the game, or at least brought on Ambrose to settle things down, but he dithered and Queens got a penalty to bring us back into the game.
Fatally, he failed to change things at 2-3 and Alloa simply proved he made a huge mistake by making it 2-4 with half time looming for Rice to tell his squad to park the bus.
Yes Queens were far better in the 2nd half, but as virtually everyone in the ground could have told Marvin, that's how he should have started.
I thought Lewis Gibson was really sharp when he came on and look forward to seeing more from him
Finally, the powers that be need to change the ruling with regards to awarding a penalty for a ball - hand. Lee deliberately aimed for the defenders hand and we were awarded a penalty, but that is simply not cricket. I'd rather watch chess than watch players aiming for a defenders hand. At worst, an indirect free kick inside the box should be given, but for me football will be ruined if we play that tactic.
Anyway that's my rant over. You can tell I wasn't impressed with Marvin ' s tactics and he hopefully will reflect on his misjudgement.
As for the ball hand rule, I'm sure many will debate the rights and wrongs of it, but I'd hate to see a great match ruined by players resorting to the tactic of aiming for a hand, for me that's worse than diving.

[qosdreamer]

Oh sugar didn't see that coming. Marvin definitely has to take a share of the blame. Sammon is the non secret focal point for Alloa. Ambrose is the only player we have physical enough to deal with him. That and the slow goal kicks put us under pressure of our own doing. Logan at left back is killing us although the options for the defence didn't help. Play out from the back by all means but not every time and give it some zip. The keeper has to take command and be switched on and get it moving.
Josh has to hold his hand up for the second but McKay is easy beat as well. I thought he was harsh done by getting subbed at half time but from the benefit of the highlights he sets up the first, is half hearted at the second and doesn't even jump against Sammon. Similarly he has a nibble at Scougall for the fourth Mimnaugh can't stop him and Harry Cochrane stands of and doesn't make a challenge. The fourth was the worst.
Positives are we can't be that bad again. Church looked okay and has a left foot. Lewis looked sharp. Marvin must have learned a lot.

[Spikefaethesouth]

Not sure that Ambrose is the long term solution and would much prefer Brydon once he is fit. Efe is not the answer at this level of fast football. Once again the issue is that we are playing far too deep when playing out from the back. By playing across the 18 yard line or even deeper at times makes it easy for the opposition to press high up the pitch so that any mistakes means that they are right on top of us with no cover as happened too often against Alloa. Start from the halfway line and put the opposition on the back foot rather than make it easy for them to push us back. Possession is fine as long as we do something with it so limit the passing across the backline and have at least some out balls available to both the defensive line and the goalie otherwise we are inviting the opposition deep into our half. A more forward starting position is desperately needed before this square possession football.

[fatfan]

Unfortunately following my suggestion that Marvin was the next Alex Fergusson, it was his tactical naivety which led to the first half debacle yesterday. He may have been influenced by Alloa ' s 6-0 drubbing and thought they would lie down to us, but my first question is this: why when Alloa have a tall, strong striker in Connor Sammon did he not start Ambrose?
Secondly, why do we play Russian Roulette with opposition forwards by farting about with short passes from the goalkeeper? It is extremely disrespectful to the oppistion and invites trouble....which we got in spades.
At 3-1 down, he should have made a triple substitution to change the game, or at least brought on Ambrose to settle things down, but he dithered and Queens got a penalty to bring us back into the game.
Fatally, he failed to change things at 2-3 and Alloa simply proved he made a huge mistake by making it 2-4 with half time looming for Rice to tell his squad to park the bus.
Yes Queens were far better in the 2nd half, but as virtually everyone in the ground could have told Marvin, that's how he should have started.
I thought Lewis Gibson was really sharp when he came on and look forward to seeing more from him
Finally, the powers that be need to change the ruling with regards to awarding a penalty for a ball - hand. Lee deliberately aimed for the defenders hand and we were awarded a penalty, but that is simply not cricket. I'd rather watch chess than watch players aiming for a defenders hand. At worst, an indirect free kick inside the box should be given, but for me football will be ruined if we play that tactic.
Anyway that's my rant over. You can tell I wasn't impressed with Marvin ' s tactics and he hopefully will reflect on his misjudgement.
As for the ball hand rule, I'm sure many will debate the rights and wrongs of it, but I'd hate to see a great match ruined by players resorting to the tactic of aiming for a hand, for me that's worse than diving.

Oh how the tide turns so quickly. One week Ferguson, next week dumpling. The joys of being a manager. I think we need to calm down a bit. It’s one defeat in four games. If we are losing every fifth game by the end of the season we won’t be too far away.

[The Beautiful South]

Well I got carried away with the wave of new season optimism and the positive messages emanating from our manager and duly made my way to Palmerston on Saturday. Oh dear, if that is the players "motivated" for the first league match then it is going to be a very long season indeed.
Comparisons have been drawn with the Clyde match at the start of last season, but to my mind the main difference was that Clyde actually played some reasonable football that day. Alloa on the other hand looked average at best yet we still managed to gift them four goals in the first half. Thankfully they were content to hold on to their lead in the second half rather than try to add to it.
As for the team, the only players I would give pass marks to were Reilly, for his endeavour, and to Gibson who offered a lot in an attacking sense. I also must comment on McClelland who is as bad a footballer as I have seen in a long time and I am of an age where I have witnessed some pretty poor Queens players.
There is absolutely no doubt that continued performances such as that at the weekend will only result in reducing the home attendance.

[jardi]

Yes, - it is of the utmost importance that QOS FC don't alienate the new supporters, - although after the East Fife game and Saturday's defensive debacle we may have already done so.

Oh how we could do with big Connor Sammon up front; - if we had him in the team, our small front runners would feed off him like Dobie did when Lyndon Dykes was here.

I know many people have disagreed with me, but I'm convinced a player of his stature and composure on the ball, - would cause all sorts of problems at the right end of the park.

[jardi]

To conclude the Alloa chapter, - it must be said that Marvin was quite contrite in his interview with Sandra and also in the Standard. That is quite refreshing from a manager and we should move on, - hopefully to a much better performance on Saturday!