Wasps’stinginthetail asjamboscrashout
Trouten (pen, 108) HEARTS 0
(90 mins 0-0. Alloa win in extra time)
Four weeks after surging through to the Scottish Cup Final with victory over Hibs, Hearts found knockout football less to their liking at Recreation Park last night as underdogs Alloa sent the Gorgie men crashing out of the League Cup.
Once again, extra time and penalty kicks proved crucial to the outcome, but while Hibs had failed to score from 12 yards at Hampden, Alan Trouten was the Alloa hero as he held his nerve under intense pressure to seal the Wasps’ first-ever victory over the Tynecastle club.
Manager Peter Grant enjoyed massive cup success as a Celtic player, and there was no hiding his delight after this shock result secured an unexpected quarter-finals place.
“Going into extra time, I must say I was a bit concerned, but I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the game over the piece,” smiled Grant. “The Hearts squad must be worth
a fair amount of money, while we have part-time players who were working until late on Friday night, but we kept a clean sheet and managed to score a goal at the other end, so you can’t ask for more than that from the players.
“People have said that we’re a good footballing team, but you have to work hard when you don’t have possession of the ball and we did that today and showed great desire throughout the whole team.
“Hearts will probably blame the (artificial) pitch or the referee, but sometimes you just have to accept defeat and move on.”
Grant was right, his opposite number Robbie Neilson was indeed incensed by the pivotal decision of referee Gavin Duncan and revealed that he had attempted to discuss matters with the official.
“I got a yellow card for going to speak to him,” explained Neilson. “Some referees are happy to speak to you and others aren’t, so he’s obviously one that doesn’t like to be spoken to. I thought he made a bad decision with the penalty.
“Overall I’m very disappointed. I thought we dominated play but unfortunately we couldn’t score a goal. With the number of chances we had, we really ought to have scored, but we just didn’t take our chances.”
Hearts had cruised to a 3-0
Championship victory over Alloa on Tuesday evening, and yesterday’s early exchanges hinted at another one-sided affair. Within the opening 10 minutes, midfielder Olly Lee fired wide for the visitors, and Jamie Walker then headed straight at home keeper Neil Parry before directing another effort wide.
Trouten tried his luck from long range for Alloa, but it was otherwise all Hearts and Austrian Peter Haring missed their next goalscoring opportunity when his volley sailed miles over the crossbar.
The start of the second half was littered with fouls, free kicks and corners but lacked any real quality, even after Scotland striker Steven Naismith replaced an out-ofsorts Liam Boyce for Hearts.
To widespread surprise, Alloa never came under sustained attack and Liam Buchanan and Ray Grant both had attempts on goal for the Wasps.
A botched Hearts free kick signalled the end of normal time, and after an evenlymatched first 15 minutes of additional time, Alloa remarkably found an extra gear. Grant’s left-foot volley forced a sharp save from Craig Gordon, but the Scotland goalie was utterly helpless in the 108th minute when Walker tripped substitute Robert Thomson and Trouten calmly converted the match-winning penalty.