After relegation to League One last season Alloa, under Jack Ross, started this season on fire, recording 10 straight wins in all competitions, which saw them sit top of the league. Form wobbled a little after their first defeat to Livingston, with a defeat, draw and win in their next three games before Ross left to take over at St Mirren. Jim Goodwin was appointed player/manager before their next game and he has guided the wasps to two wins, a draw and another defeat to Livingston in his four games in charge. Alloa come into this game on the back of a 4-1 victory over Stenhousemuir, who we faced earlier in this competition. That win saw them consolidate their 3rd place position in the table. 

 

Alloa have kept a lot of the squad relegated last season as well as adding a number of key additions, many of who the Queens fans will be familiar with. Jim Goodwin, of course, signed from St Mirren as a player before taking on the managers role. Kevin Cawley and Jamie Longworth have both been linked with us in the past, Cawley signed from Dumbarton along with Scott Taggart. 

 

This IRN-BRU Cup quarter final match kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 12th November at Palmerston. Live updates will be available on the website and on twitter and Facebook. We will also publish pictures through the day on our new Instagram Channel  

 

For home fans, the normal ticket procedure applies for the game and tickets will be available for all areas of the ground on match day from the usual ticket offices. Tickets can also be purchased in advance from the Midsteeple and, from Thursday onwards, the Club Shop.  

 

Season tickets are NOT valid for this cup game. 

 

Full ticket details and pricing, for home and away fans, can be found here  

 

Away fans will be in the Rosefield Salvage Stand. Tickets are on sale on the day at the ground from the home ticket office in the Rosefield Salvage Stand. Unfortunately, the usual dedicated away ticket office will not be open for this game.  

 

Directions on how to get to Palmerston, including parking information, can be found here  

 

Never been to Palmerston before? Read our First Time Fan Guide  

   

It goes without say that it's been an emotional week for everyone, Gavin and I had a good working relationship so I'm sorry to see him leave but it's business as usual.  There's no truer saying in football than the game stops for no one. We have a chance of making a national cup semi-final this weekend and we need to bring to an end the current sticky run that we've been on so we need to remain fully focused.  

 

We have to hold our hands up and say we were simply beaten by the better side last weekend, but to lose in the manner that we did isn’t acceptable.  After conceding two poor goals from set pieces we got ourselves back into it right on half time and we should’ve kicked on and had a go but that didn’t happen and we got what we deserved.

 

There are a couple of positives that we take from the game; we ended our goal-scoring drought and we’re starting to get players back. Derek Lyle got an hour under his belt and Jamie Hamill was back in the mix so we are heading in the right direction.

 

I believe and the players believe that we are a good team; we just didn’t show it in the match against United.  Things are conspiring against us at the moment so as a group we have to take responsibility and raise confidence which will see us starting to win games again.  Despite the uncertainty of the past few days, the boys have showed a tremendous attitude and worked really hard in training, hopefully that will reflect on the pitch come Saturday.

 

This weekend as I mentioned at the start, we have the opportunity to reach the semi-final of a national competition, so I think it’s important that we get back to basics and get the fundamentals right and come out of the traps desperate to reach the last four.

 

With it being a cup game it takes a bit of pressure off the players but we can't forget that Alloa are a good side going well in League one.  Their manager, Jim Goodwin, will have them fired up as they'll have the same ambitions as we have and want to get thorugh to the next round. 

 

  

We have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the game.  

  

 

Referee : Euan Anderson 

Assistant 1 : Alasdair Ross 

Assistant 2 :  Stephen Mitchell 

4th Official : John McKendrick 

 

Mr Anderson has refereed 10 of our games in his career. Our record in those games is fairly average, with 4 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats. However, his last two games in charge were both 3-1 wins, over Hibs in the Betfred Cup earlier this season and against Alloa on the opening day of the 15/16 season.  

 

The head to heads between the teams, in all competitions, shows us comfortably ahead with 51 wins to 35 and 30 draws. Cup games between the two sides are much closer, though, with Alloa just one win behind, 5-4. 

 

While we've met quite regularly in the league in recent years, cup games are much rarer, just two in the last 15 years. The first, an Alloa win, at Recreation Park, in 2001 while the last was a convincing win for us, at Palmerston, 5-2 in 2012. 

 

Recent form at Palmerston should provide some hope for the Palmerston faithful on Saturday. We have won the last 6 games between the two clubs, at home, are unbeaten in 9 and you have to go back to April 2003 to find the last Alloa win. 

 

Lets hope that record is still intact come Saturday night!