ALLOA star Stefan McCluskey admitted his side’s defeat to Dunfermline took the shine off his first goal for the club.

The forward scored with his first touch in the black and gold after signing for the club on Thursday.

But his debut strike wasn’t enough as the Wasps were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by their local rivals, and he admitted that his side made things difficult for themselves by allowing Dunfermline to ease into a three-goal lead before nearly mounting a late fightback.

McCluskey told Advertiser Sport: “You just can’t give teams a three-goal head start. It was hard enough going in at half time when we were 2-0 down but three makes things even harder for us. The manager told us at half time that we had to keep our spirits high but the third goal really killed us to be honest. We rallied in the second half and got two goals from some really good play.

"My goal was actually my first touch – I don’t usually score headers but thankfully it just came off my head and went in the back of the net. But sadly the shine was taken off it by the result.”

McCluskey is hoping his first goal for his new side is a sign of things to come, and says he will need to maintain his scoring touch in order to help the Wasps close the gap to Livingston at the top of the League One table.

He said: “I’m certainly hoping it’s a sign of things to come because I will need to be in good form in the league. We have to catch Livingston and although it will be a hard task given we are nine points behind, it is definitely doable. The manager has told us that if we work as hard as we did against Dunfermline, we have a good chance of doing that.”

The Wasps return to league duty on Saturday against Albion Rovers, and McCluskey is expecting the Cliftonhill pitch to make things difficult, but he admitted there will be no excuses from he and his team-mates.

He added: “We know it will be a tough game against Albion because they are a decent side and theirs is a really difficult pitch to play on. It’s not the best pitch out there. But everyone has to go there at some point so we all face the same challenge of playing on it.”