ALLOA boss Jack Ross urged his players to take the positives from their performance against Greenock Morton despite the game being abandoned with them on the verge of victory.

The Wasps were heading towards back to back victories in the SPFL Championship for the first time this season after Michael Duffy fired them ahead before the interval, but heavy snow meant the game was cruelly cut short by match official Alan Muir after 68 minutes and the gaffer reckons it is is sign that we have gone soft as a nation. 

The former St Mirren defender was gutted for his players after a second stellar display inside five days had them right back in the mix at the foot of the table and felt the referee should have done his best to get through the rest of the game once they past the hour mark. 

Ross told Advertiser Sport: “I think it is human nature when you are winning that you are disappointed if the game have to be abandoned, I was a wee bit disappointed in the manner in which it was done, having the initial conversation which was great, and thereafter I think the decision to abandon the game without having a further conversation was strange. 

“Listen I’ve had a sensible conversation with match referee Alan Muir, I have time for him as an individual, he has explained his reasoning, I disagree with a couple of them, some of them because the team were winning, some of them I just didn’t agree with anyway, but there is nothing I can do about it now. We must take from the game another huge amount of belief, because we were winning the game, deservedly so, giving us more motivation to drive us on again, so it wasn’t a completely fruitless day in that aspect but it could have been a lot better of course.

“The first conversation with the referee, he indicated that there was potential for the game not to finish, the snow was falling quiet heavily and it was more about seeing the lines, obviously we cleared the lines but you were maybe getting ten minutes out of them and they were needing cleared again. My argument is that we could keep doing that until the game had finished. 

“I quite like the NFL and watched Minnesota play in minus 31 in the wind chill, I don’t know what is happened to us we have went a bit soft in terms of what we do with football. Of course I’m going to argue the game should continue that’s natural to do so, I thought once you got past a certain point in the game towards 70 minutes when that happens if you have gone that far you should really finish.”

Ross revealed how bonding his players together as a cohesive unit and getting them back to enjoying football again has been the key to their recent renaissance, but he believes there is even more to come from his men as their belief begins to return.

He said: “I have tried to work hard on getting the players onside. You can have as many ideas and  ideology’s or whatever people might call them, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have your players onside. So we have worked hard at trying to get them enjoying training and being part of what we are trying to do and they have responded brilliantly with their effort levels and their work rate. 

“We have good players, and it’s about installing this continued belief in them, but I still think there is more to come from them. We are getting there and this past week was another step in the right direction. I think they will go home and reflect on that and say, you know what we are moving forward again.”

The 39-year-old reserved special sympathy for hitman Michael Duffy after the on-loan Celtic star finally got his first competitive goal for the club only to see the game abandoned and the goal essentially deemed meaningless. But he now expects the youngster to build on that moment and play a vital role for his side in the remainder of the season. 

Ross added: “I felt for Michael Duffy finally getting his goal and it will now not count, I still think it should count but again for him great belief he has now gone and scored that goal but unfortunately it will be erased from the record books because of the abandonment.

"I said he would get between 6 - 10 goals before the end of this season and that one should have been one of them towards that total, but if he goes and scores five then I would certainly give him this one on top.”