ALLOA new boy Ross Caldwell has now set his sights on a starting berth at Recreation Park after climbing off the bench during last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Queen of the South to score his first goal for the club.

The young striker joined up on-loan until the end of the season from Hibernian late last week and he revealed he is desperate to emulate the success of former Wasps hero Stevie May.

Caldwell told Advertiser Sport, “I have heard some great things about the club before I came here and noticed how well they have done so far this season in the SPFL Championship.

“There are a few guys at Hibs who know a few of the guys here and obviously Stevie May came here on loan and he has then gone from strength to strength at the top level ever since.

“For me personally, I just want to be playing at the highest level I can and if that means dropping down a level just to develop and get some game time just as he did then I am happy to do that.

“It is always good to score a goal on any occasion and to get one on my debut was pleasing but unfortunately it was during such a disappointing result for us.

“I am hopeful now after my goal here that the manager can reward me with a start against Dumbarton next week.

“As a team, we can take the positives from the Queens game and try to build on the performance without dwelling on the result because we played some good football at times in the match.

“We will look to do that in the coming weeks.” The 20-year-old striker admits that he jumped at the chance to link-up with former Hearts star Paul Hartley after falling down the pecking order at Hibernian in recent months.

The Hibernian starlet, who scored with his first touch last Saturday, is determined to resurrect his career with Alloa and hopes to reward the club for the opportunity by hitting the goal trail.

Caldwell said, “Hopefully I can help push Alloa up the table by doing what I am here to do and that is to score goals. This is a good platform for me now so I will look to build on that.

“I hope I can fit in really well here for the rest of the season. I went along to training last thursday for the first time and the lads all made me feel like I have been here for the whole season.

“They are very welcoming and it seems like a really great club so I am excited to play my part.

“I am really looking forward to working with Paul Hartley as a manager. Obviously, he was a great player and he has had a brilliant start to his managerial career.

“He has had back to back promotions, he is a really focused coach and a real positive influence on all the players here so I am just happy to work alongside him. “Getting the minutes and experience under my belt is key. I wasn’t playing at Hibs so I had to do something.

“I can’t just watch on from the stands, I would rather be playing so I have come here and hopefully I can force my way into the first team as soon as possible.” Caldwell reckons the timing of the Queen of the South goals was the key to their victory because they came just as Alloa were building momentum in the game.

He added, “I thought we started the brighter - we had the first clear chance through Kirky - but their keeper makes a great save.

“After that then they took the momentum from that. They kind of just ran away with it from there.

“I thought we started the second half brightly as well but obviously they score a killer third goal at a time when we were on the attack and that just gave us too much to do from there.”