County blow big chance to widen the gap
ROSS COUNTY blew the chance to consolidate their grip of pole position in the Championship when they were shocked by Alloa.
With closest challengers Dundee United losing at home to Queen of the South, the Staggies could have pulled five points clear with two games in hand.
Instead, they only hold a two-point lead after being undone by Dario Zanatta’s terrific first-half goal.
Co-manager Steven Ferguson said: ‘It’s frustrating and we weren’t happy with the way we played. We weren’t at it.
‘Fair play to Alloa. They fight extremely hard and they deserve a lot of credit for keeping us out.
‘There was an offside in the build-up to their goal. I’m not going to criticise officials but they got that one wrong.
‘Our defenders are aggrieved but we’re not going to use that as an excuse. We created some chances but we also rode our luck at times too, so we have to be honest.
‘There was no damage because United lost too, but we know this was a missed opportunity.
‘Nothing has changed from our point of view but we will look at what we can do better.’
Jack Aitchison could have scored twice inside the first 20 minutes. Keith Watson made an incredible lastditch challenge to deny the Alloa striker in 14 minutes, then Scott Fox brilliantly kept out his strike six minutes later.
Fox also made a fine save from Andy Graham’s header, but he was helpless in 33 minutes.
County reckoned Aitchison was in an offside position when Connor Shields played the ball in from the right, but they did not defend well enough.
Hearts loanee Zanatta capitalised, burst into the box and tucked away a leftfoot shot with confidence.
County were unable to recover, despite virtually being in constant possession in the second half.
Brian Graham missed decent chances either side of the interval and sub Ross Stewart forced two saves out of Neil Parry but this was Alloa’s day.
Wasps boss Jim Goodwin said: ‘Everyone contributed to a massive three points.
‘We believe we can stay in this league.’