ANOTHER majestic display saw Alloa Athletic seal a new club record tenth win in a row with a 3-0 win over East Fife in the Irn Bru Cup at the Indodrill Stadium. 

The Wasps now advance to the last 16 where teams from Northern Ireland and Wales enter the competitive to possibly set up some motuh watering away trip for their fans. 

Alloa came out of the traps on fire from the start of the match and set out their stall with purpose. 

The in-form Jordan Kirkpatrick caused problems for the visitors from the outset and he teed the ball up for an early shooting chance for Kevin Cawley, but the long range effort was deflected off target. 

East Fife earned a dangerous free kick in the wide area and Mark Lamont’s dangerous delivery caused a momentary panic in the home defence, but as Scott Robinson tried to prod the ball toward goal, Calum Waters was there to boot to safety off the line. 

The hosts made their early pressure count when they broke the deadlock on 11 minutes. Cawley picked out Greig Spence in the box with his back to goal, he spun his marker really well and then picked out Kirkpatrick who nodded beyond the keeper. 

The red-hot Kirkpatrick could have doubled the Wasps advantage inside 60 seconds when his 20-yard strike came crashing back out off the base of the post. 

It was only a short respite for the visitors, however, when Spence was cynically hacked down on the edge of the box to produce the first yellow card of the game for East Fife’s Jonathan Page. Waters stepped up to take the free kick and curled an unstoppable left-footed effort into the top corner. 

Alloa were in full flight at this point with Jon Robertson, Graeme Holmes helping them to dominate possession and Cawley’s brilliant diagonal pass in behind almost had Spence in on goal, but the keeper was alert to get out and smother. 

The Wasps’ pressure was relentless as the game reached the half hour mark. Kirkpatrick danced past two players on the edge of the are to get to the byline, but the keeper did well to gather the cutback as Spence waited to pounce. 

East Fife weathered the storm and began to creep their way back into the game. Gary Naismith’s men had a couple of half chances, but were then given a golden opportunity to get a foothold in the game when they were awarded a penalty on 37 minutes. Scott Taggart was penalised for handball in the box from a well worked Lamont corner. 

Scott Robinson stepped up to take the kick, but blazed the ball high over the cross bar with a shocking effort.

To make matters worse for the visitors, Jack Ross’ side went up the other end and added a third goal, but it was gifted to them by the East Fife defence. 

Chris Kane tried twice to usher the ball back to his keeper, the second one was seized upon and intercepted by Spence who simply slotted underneath the keeper to make it 3-0. 

The second half took up pretty much the same format with the Wasps dominating the ball and the likes of Cawley, Kirkpatrick and Spence causing all sorts of problems. 

East Fife were almost gifted a lifeline when Jamie Insall latched onto some confusion in the Wasps’ defence, but a combination of Jim Goodwin and Neil Parry saw them foil the danger. 

Super football between Spence and Cawley then setup a shooting chance for Taggart just before the hour mark, but Goodfellow did well to smother the deflected effort. 

The visitors’ defence were struggling to keep Kirkpatrick quiet and he should have extended Alloa’s lead on 63 minutes when Flannigan picked him out inside the box, but Goodfellow denied him again with a brilliant double save. 

Substitute Luke Donnelly then got involved in the action and immediately ran at the visitors defence to slip in Kirpatrick, but his cross for Spence was just cleared by Page. 

Kirkpatrick again was the man for Alloa as they again looked to add a fourth goal on 77 minutes. He beat two players, worked his way into the box to shoot, but again Goodfellow was equal to the 12-yard shot. 

East Fife had the final chance of the game when Jamie Insall tried to lob Parry from 30 yards, but the effort was over the top. 

The victory was confirmed soon after to see Alloa advance to the last 16 of the Challenge Cup.

It was a club record tenth win in a row for the Wasps, so confidence could not be higher heading into the crunch top of the table clash at home to Livingston next weekend. 

Advertiser man of the match: Jordan Kirkpatrick

Alloa Athletic: Parry, Taggart, Waters, Graham, Robertson, Goodwin, Flannigan, Holmes (Hoggan 81), Spence (Longworth 74), Cawley (Donnelly 64), Kirkpatrick. Subs not used: McDowall, Wilson, Scullion,  Martin.