NEW Alloa boss Jack Ross believes there is plenty to build on despite his side's 2-0 home defeat to St Mirren last weekend.

The Wasps lost out to goals from Lawrence Shankland and Calum Gallagher, but they certainly gave as good as they got as the Paisley side were pushed to the limit at the Indodrill Stadium.

The gaffer revealed he has urged his players to be more positive in their play in the final third, and he hopes they will now look to build on the positives going forward.

Ross told Advertiser sport: “First and foremost all you want is to win the game and so prior to it, I hadn’t thought about anything else than to prepare the team to win. Naturally I am disappointed we lost the game, but mainly for the players because they put an awful lot into the match. It is difficult for me to make comparisons in terms of the teams previous performances because I haven’t seen them play at home this season and had to be guided by Paddy for that, but he thought it was one of their better home displays and on another occasion we could have got something from it.

“Obviously, we haven’t scored a lot of goals this season, one of the things we spoke about before hand was be as positive as we can in the final third, you have to be prepared to make mistakes in that area, putting crosses in the box, having shots on goal to create things and I thought we did that to create a number of opportunities. I don’t think any of the chances were poor finishing, but I think it was just not falling for us on the day. If the players continue to work as hard as that and try and create in the final third then I’m sure it will fall for them. My message at the end of the game was not to go away from here in any way disappointed or downbeat because I thought there were a lot of positives to take from the game.”

The 39-year-old admits he was relieved to see fellow relegation rivals Livingston and Dumbarton draw at the weekend as it keeps his side well in touch at the bottom.

The Wee County outfit now face a festive showdown with high flying Raith Rovers on Boxing Day, and Ross knows they will have to be at their best to get something from that one.

He said: “People say they don’t look at other results but the position we are in of course it was good Livingston and Dumbarton drew, it’s a good result for us, despite the difficult season we have had we are still in touch and that’s important to keep that belief amongst the players as well. It is the first time I have seen some of the players in competitive action and I am still getting to know some of them. I have limited time with them during the week, but there were good things and not so good things.

“Our next game is against Raith Rovers at Kirkcaldy and while it is a tough match for us on paper, in this league they are all difficult. I went to their win over Morton on Friday and they're a good side, but I hope our players will have taken belief from this game. St. Mirren won 2-0, but the game was anything but comfortable for them. They had to earn that victory. The two players who scored the goals in Lawrence Shankland and Calum Gallagher have good pedigrees and the first goal, which is always hugely important in this division was a really good finish. I think if Shankland took a touch Michael Doyle probably gets in to make a tackle. We will pick ourselves up though and be ready for the challenge at Kirkcaldy.”

The Wasps boss revealed he will be looking to strengthen his side when the transfer window opens later in the week with a new striker top of his Christmas wish list.

The former Hearts U20s coach admits he was concerned to see stalwart defender Jason Marr limp out of the St Mirren defeat with a recurrence of a recent injury and he hopes it is not too severe.

Ross added: “The January transfer window will give us the opportunity within that period to do something, we will have to try and shuffle things around, but it’s like everything there is not an abundance of players available. I wouldn’t just change for the sake of change, it would have to improve our squad. Obviously, we don’t have a huge amount of options up front which looks a little imbalanced in the squad and I would like to address that.

“It is worrying that Jason Marr had to come off with what looked like a muscular injury because he is just back fit. Jason does well for us and comes from a good pedigree so we will need to assess him over next couple of days. We're at a club where resources are less than others though so we just need to deal with it and move on.”