Alloa Athletic…3

East Fife…0

ALLOA Athletic stretched their winning run into a third successive game with a fine victory over playoff challengers East Fife.

The Wasps were two up at the break thanks to Greig Spence and Kevin Cawley, and added a third late on through Jamie Longworth.

The result moves them to within six points of league leaders Livingston, albeit having played two games more.

There were two changes to the side which beat Airdrieonians on Saturday, with Stefan McCluskey and Graeme Holmes dropping out and Steven Hetherington and Iain Flannigan coming in.

The visitors started stronger and forced a couple of half-chances, Craig McDowall doing well to punch away a Ben Reilly cross which looked to be sneaking in at the far post.

But it was the Wasps who made the breakthrough with 11 minutes on the clock, Greig Spence netting his 20th goal of the season. Dylan Mackin worked his way into space and hung up a fine cross, and Spence arrived between two defenders to give the perfect response to being substituted at half time on Saturday.

The Fifers immediately went in search for an equaliser and Jesse Curran, who only arrived on loan from Dundee a matter of hours before kick-off, came close when he burst past the Wasps defence, only to skew his shot wide.

Jamie Insall then should have done better when he headed wide of the mark when he had the freedom of the Alloa penalty area to pick his spot.

Mackin almost got on the scoresheet himself, meeting Flannigan’s free kick at the near post, and was unlucky to see his header narrowly clear the crossbar.

Jordan Austin was the first man into the referee’s notebook for a crunching challenge on Calum Waters, before Alloa added a second ahead of the interval.

There didn’t seem to be much on for Kevin Cawley when he picked the ball up in midfield, but he drove from deep and with the East Fife defence backing off, fired the ball low past the helpless Ryan Goodfellow and into the bottom corner.

The Wasps started the second half as they had ended the first and Steven Hetherington forced a magnificent save from Goodfellow, the keeper somehow getting a hand to the Englishman’s goalbound shot which was moving all over the place in the air.

Alloa’s hearts were in their mouths when McDowall let a Reilly shot squirm through his fingers, but the keeper recovered to keep his clean sheet intact.

Substitute Jamie Longworth was denied by a terrific block by the impressive Jonathan Page before Scott Taggart was kept out by another decent save from Goodfellow as Alloa pushed for the third goal which would see them put the game beyond doubt once and for all.

But the third did arrive with ten minutes to go and it was Longworth who got it. A diagonal ball was clipped into the box and the former Stranraer man glanced it beyond Goodfellow and into the bottom corner.

Both sides could have netted in the final stages of the game but neither were able to add to the scoring, Alloa seeing it out to record a third win and second clean sheet in their last three games.

Alloa Athletic: McDowall, Taggart, Waters, McKeown, Graham, Hetherington, Cawley (Robertson), Flannigan, Spence (Holmes), Kirkpatrick, Mackin (Longworth). Not used: Wilson, Marr, Hoggan, Hynd.