Let's turn The Recs into a fortress

Iain Robertson • Published 11 Aug 2010 11:00 0 Comments

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Darren Smith wants Alloa to make the most of home advantage.

ALLOA Athletic midfielder Darren Smith wants the Wasps to make Recreation Park a fortress this season - starting on Saturday against East Fife.

The former Raith Rovers player, who Alloa gaffer Allan Maitland hailed as the best-part time player in Scotland when he signed him in June, knows picking up points at home will be key to their ambitions this term.

He told the Advertiser Sport, "We want to make sure Recreation Park is a hard place for opposing teams to come and play. If we can do well in our home games we won't be far away."

The 30-year-old, whose wonder strike in the weekend's Division Two curtain raiser at Livingston kick-started Alloa's second half fight back, insists an improved performance will be needed against East Fife, though, if the side are to secure maximum points.

"It was a good feeling to get my first goal, and being 2-0 down at the time it got us back into the game," he said. "But it is important we play better as a unit this Saturday and make ourselves hard to beat. If we do that then our strikers have the ability to breach any defence."

He continued, "East Fife have players that can hurt you. I watched them against my old club Raith Rovers recently and they played well in spells, so we'll have to be ready for them."

Smith said nobody at the club was happy with the sides performance at Almondvale but he praised the players spirit in grinding out a draw against the bookies tip for the title.

Wasps gaffer Allan Maitland, who oversaw his 200th game in charge of Alloa at the weekend, echoed that sentiment when he spoke at the post match press conference, saying, "It was a great point but not a great day for us so we need to improve dramatically if we are going to do anything this year."

Their first chance to do that will be against East Fife, and Wasps defender Scott Walker hopes the team can bag an early goal to put all the pressure on the visitors.

"They will set up 4-5-1 and try and make it difficult for us," he said. "It could be very frustrating afternoon for us but it's our job to put them under pressure and hopefully we can get an early goal."

East Fife began their league campaign with a 3-3 draw at home to relegated Airdrie United - so it promises to be an exciting afternoon at the Recs.

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