Kelty Hearts suffered another defeat on the road at the hands of Alloa Athletic. An own goal from Callum Flatman and a Steven Buchanan goal in the 33rd minute were enough to clinch all three points for the Wasps.
Alloa got the breakthrough in the 11th minute when Joshua Gentles was played through. The winger ran at goal and skipped past O’Ware before cutting it back in the path of Scott Honeyman. Just before Honeyman connected, Flatman slid in to block out the pass but could only turn the cross goalwards.
Andy Graham’s side would double their advantage in the 33rd minute through Buchanan. A long ball was drifted into the box by Kurtis Roberts towards Honeyman. Scott Mercer did enough to put off Honeyman as he took his shot but the ball was deflected to Buchanan who arrived late and finished into the open net.
The Maroon Machine struggled in the first half but gradually grew into the game. Just before the half time whistle, some slick play down the right saw Jacob MacIntyre fire in a dangerous cross across the goal line. McLeish was arriving but went down before he could reach the cross, with nothing given from the referee.
Kelty Hearts improved in the second half, and came close to halving the deficit in the 60th minute. A lofted free-kick was swung in by MacIntyre and caught goalkeeper PJ Morrison in no-man’s-land, Flatman met the cross but his header was wide.
The closest Kelty came to scoring was in the dying moments of the match. Scott Allan fired in a cross which caused chaos in the Alloa box. It fell to Lewis Moore who’s shot beat the goalkeeper but was blocked on the line. The ball then rebounded to McLeish who tried himself but saw his shot saved.
Just before that chance, Alloa captain Scott Taggart was dismissed for a second yellow card. However, this promising spell for Kelty came too late and Alloa held on for the 2-0 win.
Reflecting on the match to Kelty Hearts TV, Charlie Mulgrew said it was a “disappointing” afternoon. “We never played forward quick enough really, we want to have control but we need to make them defend and ask questions, but we never did that enough.”
Written by: Jamie Szmitz
Photography: Kevin Marshall (@KayemPhoto)