Match Report | Alloa Athletic 2-1 Morton
Alloa Athletic 2 – 1 Morton
Trouten (68 pen), Waddell O.G. (77) – Millar (12)
Morton let a half-time lead slip to a penalty and an own goal as they lost 2-1 to Alloa Athletic at the Indodrill Stadium this afternoon.
The fixture saw two of the Ladbrokes Championship’s form clubs go head to head in Clackmannanshire, with Ton having recorded back to back wins and the Wasps unbeaten in five.
Greenock gaffer Johansson made two enforced changes to the team that beat league leaders Ross County eight days earlier.
Goalkeeper Ryan Scully was brought in for the injured Derek Gaston, who was deemed fit enough to take a place on the bench, and Michael Tidser was restored to the starting line-up in place of the departed Scott Tiffoney.
The shot-stopper was called into action inside the first two minutes dropping to his right to parry from Dario Zanatta, who drove into the Morton box and pulled a shot back across his body from around 15 yards.
Scully was forced into action again on six minutes, bravely throwing himself at the feet of Alan Trouten to smother after the ball had taken a couple of deflections inside the box and broke kindly for the Alloa forward.
Experienced midfielder Chris Millar scored a match-winning double on Ton’s last visit to Recreation Park, and he continued his impressive form there by opening the scoring after 12 minutes.
Stepping onto a loose ball 22 yards out after Jim McAlister had made a block, Millar lasered a first-time strike beyond Neil Parry and into the bottom-right corner.
Top scorer Bob McHugh hit the target with a speculative shot towards the end of the first half and Reghan Tumilty asked questions of Wasps No.1 Neil Parry with a rising drive 20 seconds after the restart.
The hosts were enjoying a lot of possession but the Ton back five were largely untroubled and the team looked on course for their third successive league victory until the 67th minute.
It was then that they were awarded a penalty, referee David Lowe adjudging Scully to have connected with Trouten as the Alloa man burst beyond him inside the box.
Former Ton youth Trouten converted one of his side’s spot-kicks in their 2-0 win at Cappielow in November, and he was successful again on this occasion, tucking the ball past Scully into the bottom-left corner.
And Alloa took the lead 11 minutes later in inexplicable circumstances, Kerr Waddell slicing a miscued clearance into his own net after Rory McKeown’s blocked clearance span back along the bye-line towards goal.
It turned out to be the winner as Jim Goodwin’s side stretched their unbeaten run to six matches and prevented the Cappielow club from recording three successive wins for the first time this term.
Morton (532)
23. Scully
14. Tumilty 2. Kilday 4. Buchanan 5. Waddell 25. McKeown
7. Millar 8. McAlister (c) 12. Tidser
6. Telfer 11. McHugh
Subs used: 10. Thomson (for Telfer, 70), 15. Dykes (for Tidser, 75), and 3. Iredale (for McKeown, 80)
Subs not used: 28. Purdue, 32. R. Lyon, 38. Eardley, 1. Gaston (gk).
Booked: Scully (67), Millar (85).
Alloa Athletic (442): Parry; Taggart, Graham (c), Roscoe, Dick; Shields (Spence, 87), Hetherington, Flannigan, Kirkpatrick (Cawley, 75); Trouten (Robertson, 80), Zanatta.
Subs not used: Robertson, Brown, Aloulou, Henry (gk).
Booked: Trouten (37), Flannigan (42).
Referee: David Lowe
Attendance: 931
⭐️ Star Man: Chris Millar
Image (main): David Bell
