Alloa defied the odds to beat full-time opponents Hearts at the Indodrill stadium on Saturday, securing safe passage through to the next stage of the Betfred Cup in injury time.
Goal scorer Alan Trouten admitted that the manor in which Hearts had lauded their previous victory over their part-time counterparts on Tuesday invoked a response from his side, as they sent the Gorgie men home to Tynecastle empty handed.
Alloa’s number 10 was the difference maker on Saturday as his side snatched a win deep into extra time, slotting home a penalty in the second half to earn his side a place in the next round. Alloa threatened little in the 90 minutes, and had Olly Lee not been wasteful when sent one-one-one with Neil Parry after five minutes it would have perhaps been a different story entirely. But as the game wore on, with it the prospect of victory grew for Peter Grant’s side who’s resilience in defence allowed them the platform to win.
The two teams’ aforementioned midweek clash saw Hearts breeze home to a 3-0 win at Tynecastle. Trouten revealed after the match that comments made by Hearts’ players during that match had added fuel to what appears to be somewhat of a fire between the sides.
“I don’t think we played particularly well on Tuesday and we had some harsh words after the game,” admitted the 35-year-old.
“A couple of their player’s comments during the game when it was 3-0 and easy for them fired us up for today. A few of their boys weren’t very chirpy as the game got later today. It’s easy enough for these boys who are earning good money while we have been at work all day, so it was great to set that straight today.
“Today was a great performance. We changed our style, sat in a little bit them on the break and got a good victory.”
Referee Gavin Duncan pointed to the spot in the 109th minute, judging that Robert Thomson had been fouled by Jamie Walker. Trouten remained composed, sending Hearts and Scotland ‘keeper Craig Gordon the wrong way to side foot Alloa into the quarter-finals of the Betfred Cup for just the second time.
“I’ve got a certain style over my career and it’s been pretty successful for the most part, so I was happy to see it hit the back of the net,” Trouten said of his penalty exploits.
“He {Gordon} has played at the highest level and he’s absolutely massive. Tuesday is the first time I have played against him. I was delighted to send him the wrong way.”
The man in question, Gordon, couldn’t complain at being beaten by a well hit penalty, but he did take issue with the manor in which it was awarded.
The penalty appeared to be slightly soft which undoubtedly frustrated Hearts, who had a claim of their own in the first half given as a free-kick, when it appeared the foul may have taken place inside the area.
Asked whether he thought the spot kick should have been awarded, Gordan said: “No I don’t think so, the ball has just kind of bounced awkwardly and Jamie is running back. The guy is trying to get a strike on it, he takes a fresh air shot and gets a penalty. That was how I saw it at the time.
“{The referee} refused to speak to me. I just asked what the foul was given for, with what part of his body did he make a foul because for me Jamie is just running back beside him. He {Thomson} fell over trying to get the strike because it was bouncing awkwardly and the refer has seen a foul somewhere.
“You look at the game as a whole and we didn’t score. We’ve had plenty of chances in the game to go and win but we haven’t managed to do it. I don’t want to point fingers at the referee when we’ve been beaten one nil and we could’ve taken the game into our own hands and won it.
“We created chances, the final ball wasn’t great at times and we maybe struggled to get that one goal. If we got the first I’m sure we’d have gone onto win the game. We felt as if we were comfortable in that game but we just couldn’t get the goal.”
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