News

JAMIE Masson’s wonder strike sent us on the road to a third successive 3-0 victory, with this one over the Wasps ensuring we will celebrate Christmas sitting proudly on top of cinch League One.

Rory McAllister made it 2-0 from the penalty spot, with Mitch Megginson then trying to outdo Masson in the goal-of-the-afternoon stakes with a stunner to complete the scoring.

There were fears the match might not go ahead as freezing fog enveloped Balmoral Stadium and made visibility poor.

Well done to referee Steven Reid for choosing to delay making a final decision over whether to play on, because it meant the 585 fans inside the stadium – including a noisy group from Alloa in fancy dress – could enjoy a highly entertaining game.

Alloa made the brighter start, with Stuart McKenzie having to hold a 20-yard shot from Mouhamed Niang after just two minutes.

Scott Ross and Harry Milne also had to make vital penalty box interceptions, the latter after Steven Boyd had made a great run into our box, as Alloa continued to threaten.

It took a bad tackle from Mark Dornan on Iain Vigurs in the 15th minute to finally spark us into life.

Dornan was fortunate to escape with only a lecture from referee Reid because the injury suffered by Vigurs meant he had had to be replaced by Leighton McIntosh.

Fraser Fyvie, who was voted man-of-the-match by sponsor Ian McIntosh, took the resulting free-kick and Alloa keeper David Hutton had to dive low to his left to push away the midfielder’s 25-yard effort.

McIntosh broke down the right in the 28th minute to send in a cross that was dummied by McAllister before Megginson saw his six-yard shot blocked by a defender.

Ross then played a clever one-two with Blair Yule as he broke forward and Hutton did well to grab the defender’s cross before it got to McAllister.

We went ahead in the 41st minute – and it was the latest in a long run of crackers scored in recent weeks.

Yule played the ball forward to McAllister and when he laid it perfectly back into the path of MASSON he curled it home spectacularly from 20-yards to send the Cove Rangers fans into raptures.

• 

• 

The second half was just 15 seconds old when Niang was booked for a late challenge on Fyvie, who thankfully was able to continue.

We had a penalty appeal turned away in the 51st minute, when McIntosh appeared to be shoved in the back as he attempted to control a cross from Masson.

Within a minute, McIntosh fed the ball in from the right for Fyvie to lash a 20-yard shot wide of the target.

Megginson hit a snapshot wide from the edge of the area as we kept up the pressure on the Alloa defence.

We were awarded a penalty just on the hour, when McIntosh was tripped by a defender, although the referee seemed to consult nearside assistant Alistair Mather before pointing to the spot.

McALLISTER did his usual professional job from the spot, sending Hutton the wrong way to claim his 15th goal of the campaign.

• 

• 

MEGGINSON finished the afternoon off in perfect fashion by also netting his 15th goal of the season, in the 84th minute.

His was arguably the best of the lot, coming on the end of a sweeping passing move that finished with Yule’s pass to substitute Fin Robertson being laid off for Megginson to deftly curl a shot from just inside the area that gave the diving Hutton no chance.

• 

• 

Aye, Santa has certainly come early if you are a Cove Rangers fan!

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Neill, Milne, Scully, Ross, Yule, Megginson, Masson (Leitch 87), McAllister (Robertson 73), Vigurs (McIntosh 15), Fyvie.

Subs: Anderson, Adeyemo, Gourlay.

ALLOA ATHLETIC: Hutton, Taggart, Graham, Robertson, Durnan, Gilmour, Cawley (King 73), Niang, Boyd, Scougall (Sammon 60), Henderson.

Subs: Burt, Mendy, O’Donnell, Church, Leighton.

Referee: Steven Reid.

Article Copyright © 2021. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to www.coverangersfc.com.

Matchday 18 Gallery | Alloa Athletic (H) »