20/12/21

Alloa Reaction | Gordon Young & Jamie Masson

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Assistant manager Gordon Young and midfielder Jamie Masson spoke to the media after our 3-0 cinch League One victory over Alloa Athletic at Balmoral Stadium.

Jamie opened the scoring, with Rory McAllister and Mitch Megginson also netting to bring their individual goal tallies for the season to an impressive 15 strikes each in a match that was played in freezing and foggy conditions.

Gordon began by praising the Cove Rangers fans for the backing they have given the team, particularly during the last few weeks.

He said: “They have been fantastic, they have actually been getting more vociferous and we have been paying homage to them a lot.

“We know how respectful they are football-wise, so it’s great to have been able to give them something to cheer about.

“On behalf of the staff and players, I wish them all a Merry Christmas.”

Gordon is delighted with the team’s performance against The Wasps, despite the face we had some experienced players missing and were forced to replace midfielder Iain Vigurs when he suffered an ankle injury early in the first half.

He said “It’s a testament to the depth of the squad that we’ve got that we had enforced changes, with Shay Logan suspended and Ryan Strachan injured, and the level of performance wasn’t affected in any way.

“We’ve been unable to field the same team two games in a row for the last six or seven matches but have still got the results we needed.

“We never have to look over our shoulders and think if the team is maybe being weakened when we are having to ask others to come in.

“If anything we improve, including when we make substitutions.”

Jamie’s opener was an exceptional strike and the latest of a series of top-class goals scored in recent weeks.

Gordon said: “It’s what these boys do in training every week.

“Their ability and experience is shining through now.

“We are halfway into the season now, or two quarters, as we prefer to look at it.

“That’s how we break it down statistically, so it’s a great position to be in, the fact we improved the points total in the second quarter in comparison to the first one.

“That’s level of consistency and improvement you need if you hope to do well over the course of a season.

“We are scoring two to three goals a game, but not conceding too.

“That’s a massive confidence booster that has been provided by the goalkeeper and players in front of them.

“We score as a team, we defend as a team – and we win as a team.”

Vigurs had his injured ankle put into a protective boot, but could still feature in our Boxing Day league clash with East Fife at Balmoral Stadium.

Jamie, whose goal was his fourth of the campaign, said: “There is a good momentum at the club just now going into each game.

“I don’t think we played that well this time, but we still came away with a clean sheet and three goals, which is always great.

“It’s also good to be sitting on top of the league going into Christmas.

“We are feeling very confident and, even though we have some very tough fixtures coming up, we are really looking forward to them.”

Jamie praised striker Rory for the part he played setting up the opener against Alloa.

“The lay-off from Rory was perfect and I could see I had a chance to shoot, so just wrapped my foot around it and hit it,” he said.

“I was buzzing when I saw the ball hit the net, even more so because it settled us after they (Alloa) had started the game pretty strongly.

“Everyone knows how great a goal scorer Rory is, but he is a fantastic team player too.

“He works hard and lays balls off to create chances for others all of the time.

“Rory obviously knows where the net is too, he’s been scoring loads for a number of years now, but he’s brilliant to play with because he helps get the best out of us too.”

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