Aitken to have sit down talks with Sons board after drop

Alloa Athletic beat Dumbarton 2-0 on Sunday and 2-1 on aggregate after a 93rd minute goal forced extra time and Aitken who is under contract until the end of next season, says there must be some reflection now before he and the club decide how best to move forward from the disappointment.

He said: “It’s going to take a few days to get over it. I’ll sit down with the board and we’ll have opinions at what went wrong.

“Managers get things right and managers get things wrong. We’ve had a lot of good moments this season with the cup final and beating some big clubs.

“We’ve had a lot of joy this year, beating big clubs like the likes of Dundee United and St Mirren and there should be a sense of pride amongst everyone that we have been a Championship club for the past six years but now we pass the baton over to Alloa and good luck to them.

“I’m proud of being a manager, I love what I do, I love working here and being in the championship the last three years and I don’t want to lose that, but at this moment in time it just feels so sore, it’s hard to focus.

“I’ll speak to the club and they’ll have their views as well. I enjoy working with the people here, so it’s now a time to reflect before we make our next decision.”

And despite having a sense of pride over what he has achieved in his time at The Sons, Aitken described his feelings after the game as the lowest he’s ever felt in football. He said: “It’s the lowest I’ve felt since I started playing football at the age of 16. It’s hard to describe how we’re all feeling because we’re still sore.

“We’ve lost a cup final on 93 minutes and our league status on 93 minutes.

“When the goal went in you could see the players drop to their knees. At 93 minutes we could have run the ball to the corner, and we don’t, then we don’t deal with the long ball. We gave it back to them.

“You can’t ask your back four to keep defending. We defended so well for so long and to lose the way we did was really disappointing.”