PLENTY of positives could be taken for Alloa Athletic Women’s team as they faced off against Buchan United Women’s in their last game of the season.

Allan Salvona’s side was faced with a number of injuries ahead of the final match of their first season and were forced to name just 13 players altogether.

Despite this, Alloa performed strongly and were able to produce a 1-1 result at the Indodrill Stadium on Sunday.

The first few chances of the match fell to Buchan, but solid pressure from Alloa ensured that they were fired wide.

Some lovely through balls opened up Buchan’s defence early on and Alloa had their first great chance as Abbie Trotter gets her shot away but it goes over the bar.

Alloa’s keeper Claire Stirling was tested as the first half proceeded but made a couple of fine stops and denies Buchan from the resulting corner.

Alloa step up the pressure with Molly Williams’s through ball slicing through the defence and picking out Trotter. Her cross bounces off the Buchan defender and almost results in an own goal before being narrowly cleared away by Buchan’s number 1. The corner was cleared away by the opposition.

The first half opens up after this as both teams begin to get shots away, forcing brilliant saves from both keepers. At the half hour mark, the deadlock was broken. The Buchan defence could do nothing as Amy Cully made a fantastic strike to give Alloa the lead.

Alloa keep the pressure up, building momentum from the goal. Cully was pivotal in getting the ball up, providing fantastic runs that the Buchan defence could not keep up with. The Wasps almost get a quick second after the opposition shot-stopper fumbles the ball. Maisie McNamara quickly tries to get to the ball but the keeper manages to regain a hold on it.

A clever through ball is fired into the opposition box and Cully races for it but can’t beat the keeper who narrowly beats Alloa’s number 20 to it.

A nervy five minutes before the half time whistle as Buchan maintain their pressure and force Stirling into a couple of rapid stops, allowing Alloa to go into the break ahead.

The opposition came out from the interval the stronger team and penned the Wasps into a corner early on. The pressure pays off as Buchan manage to chip one over Stirling and get a goal back, bringing the score level to 1-1 in the 52nd minute.

Alloa suffered another scare just a few minutes later as Cully went down after a collision with a defender. Her runs down the right wing had caused problems for Buchan’s back line. She’s back on her feet after some treatment from the medics.

The second half was mostly a fair contest, both teams managing to get shots away but nobody managing to hit the target.

Going into the final fifteen minutes of play, Alloa began to look weary. The lack of subs had started to hit them hard and Buchan capitalised by putting the pressure on. The Wasps’ defence pulled out all the stops to block any effort Buchan put in and Stirling made some fine stops to deny a few late chances.

Play is stopped as Molly Williams goes down after a bad tackle. Medics rush over and she’s down for a few minutes before continuing. From there, Alloa mount a last ditch effort to regain the lead. Buchan keeper makes one last save before the Wasps fire into the net as the final whistle is blown.

Allan Salvona’s side finish sixth in their inaugural season in the North East Championship, with the side settling into things as the year went on.

Alloa’s women will welcome the winter break now before the next season commences in March.

ALLOA: STIRLING, BUNDY, CONNELL, CULLY, FELICIE-KELLER, HOGG, MCNAMARA, PRIECE, SWANSON, TROTTER, WILLIAMS. UNUSED: ARMSTRONG, MCGUIGAN.