1 ALLOA 2 RAITH
JOHN DOCHERTY AT THE INDODRILL
JAMIE MacDONALD celebrated his 35th birthday as Raith Rovers unwrapped a very special spot in the play-offs.
But the keeper admitted he was sad to see Alloa suffer relegation after three seasons in the Championship.
MacDonald was on loan with the parttimers from Kilmarnock last term and loved his stint at the Indodrill Stadium.
He supported Alloa manager Peter Grant’s view that referee Greg Aitken got it badly wrong when he sent off Wasps keeper Neil Parry for the controversial penalty award which saw Gozie Ugwu level for John McGlynn’s Raith.
It came after Kevin Cawley had shot the home side into a 1-0 interval lead and Raith No.1 MacDonald said: “It has worked in our favour but I think it’s a ridiculous decision to send him off.
“As a goalkeeper there’s not much you can do. I even asked the ref at one point and he says he went past him and has intentionally tripped him up.
“But he has not. He has spread to stop the shot. It’s a good bit of skill from Gozie that takes him round and he takes him down.”
“We knew it was always going to be difficult because it was really Alloa’s last-chance saloon.
“It was great we got the result, we made hard work of it but showed good character.”
MacDonald feels the Wasps and hopes they bounce back quickly. But his focus is on Raith and consecutive promotions.
He said: “Alloa are a fantastic club with a lot of good people. They are part-time and always kind of punching above their weight.
“They are an excellent footballing team and probably didn’t deserve the defeat overall because there wasn’t much in it and they probably dominated for 30 minutes.
“I’m gutted for them but I’m sure they will regroup for next season and will look to come straight back up.
“It’s fantastic for us. What an achievement to be in the top four. After coming up as new boys in the league you are almost looking at just trying to consolidate but what a season we have had.
“We have managed to get that top-four spot with two games to go and will be looking to finish as high as possible. “Finishing second would be massive especially when you go into the play-offs, it’s a couple of games less.
“It’s good to get the win on my birthday although that last 15 minutes probably added an extra year! Hopefully I’ve got a few more years left in me!”
The penalty award and red-carding of Parry was a huge turning point as Ugwu calmly slotted home past sub keeper Reece Willison to level.
It did not get any better for Alloa as teenager Dylan Tait fired in Raith’s winner just after the hour.
Gutted Alloa star Alan Trouten said: “It’s a sickener but it’s not this game that’s got us relegated. We’ve won four out of 25 which hasn’t been good enough.
“We’ve played well against Raith but it’s over the season that has cost us.
“We’re not making any excuses. Four victories from 25 games is embarrassing – there’s no beating about the bush, it’s not going to keep you in any league. The important thing is for the club to get back.
“We want to win the last two games for personal pride. You play to win. We’ll go to Cappielow absolutely desperate to get a bit of pride back for the club and ourselves.
“The club’s well run and everyone will be desperate to get back to the Championship although it won’t be an easy league.”