Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
DROP WAS DESERVED
We were lucky... we ’d have been relegated long ago in any other league, insists Trouten Midfielder says Rovers were so poor he still feels like a failure despite 28 goals and POY nod
Alan Trouten blasted Albion Rovers’ run to relegation — admitting that in any other league in the world they would have been sent down long before the final-day heartbreak.
The tough-talking midfielder – who sealed a switch to Alloa just days after Rovers’ drop – dubbed the season a failure despite his personal 28-goal tally.
He reckons they were lucky to still be in with a chance of the relegation battle on the final day after a horror run which saw them pick up just three wins since September last term.
The League One Player of the Year nominee was left gutted after missing the final-day defeat to Ayr after picking up a hamstring knock.
It meant he could do nothing but watch from the sidelines as the Coatbridge outfit dropped to League Two – and the out-ofcontract star was then unveiled by the Wasps.
“It was a bad way to end the season. I got a hamstring injury and had to miss the last game,” he told the Advertiser.
“Personally it was my best-ever season. I scored a lot of goals, but as a team we can look back and say that it wasn’t good enough.
“We got off to a good start, scoring three and four consistently and drew with Hamilton and won on penalties, and drew with Queen of the South in the cup and lost on penalties.
“None of us as players can get around that it wasn’t a good season though.
“We never got the consistency we needed in the second half of the season; if we are honest it was poor.
“To only win three games since September; at any other level and in any league we would
have been long buried at the bottom.
“To score 28 goals at any level is great personally, but when we look at the season as a whole and are brutal, ultimately we failed.
“The season was a failure; if you call it what it is. The league table doesn’t lie at the end of the day.”
The 32-year-old admits that he was sold on the switch by his former team-mates Jason Marr and Graeme Holmes – and is hopeful that his new
Wasps teammates can secure a Championship place next term as they battle it out in the play-off final.
“It’s a great move for me,” he continued. “The boys told me that it was a really good club and sold me on it.
“It’s really exciting, but it’s pretty surreal that one minute you’re going down a division to potentially going up to the Championship.
“I feel like I’ve got the ability to perform at that level, but if we are still in League One we will be pushing for the top.
“Alloa have been there or thereabouts over the last few years so hopefully they are in the Championship sooner rather than later.”