ALLOA boss Jim Goodwin admitted his side did not do enough to deserve three points from last Saturday’s do-or-die clash with Livingston.

The Wasps had to win to keep their title hopes alive, but despite hitting the post twice in the first five minutes, lost out as their opponents sealed automatic promotion.

However, the manager praised his players’ recent good run and insisted that they will use the disappointment as motivation ahead of the playoffs.

Goodwin told Advertiser Sport: “In the first five or 10 minutes things could have been so different.

"We hit the post twice at 0-0 and then Scott Pittman scored an absolute screamer.

"There was not a lot we could do about that. But after that, I don’t think we contributed enough.

"We were poor after going behind and Livingston deserved to win the game.

“Before the game we had gone 10 unbeaten so the boys have been on a great run so they are feeling a bit down at the moment, especially after hearing the Livingston players celebrating, but we want to turn that round and use it as motivation to kick on and finish the season strongly, and go into the playoffs with a bit of momentum behind us.”

Goodwin praised Livingston after they were crowned champions, and says that despite missing out on automatic promotion, he remains confident that his side can negotiate the promotion playoffs.

He said: “Of course we still believe we can go up.

"We are sitting second in the table and we are seven points ahead of Airdrie.

"Livingston were always going to be the team to beat in this league; they are a full-time team with a much bigger budget then everyone else and at the end of the day they have deserved to win the league. They deserve credit for that but my boys have tried to stay with them all the way.

"Unfortunately, towards the end, we just didn’t have enough, but fair play to Livingston who went and got the job done. We would have liked to delay the celebrations but it wasn’t to be.”

The Wasps boss revealed that Jordan Kirkpatrick had suffered a groin injury during last Saturday’s encounter, adding to his injury worries, with Frank McKeown and Iain Flannigan both already sidelined.

Goodwin added: “Jordan went off with a niggle in his groin and that is obviously a huge concern because he is a massive player for us.

"Frank McKeown pulled up in training with a calf strain and Iain Flannigan has a problem with his back, so we were missing some key players.

"But I’m not prepared to risk players at this stage of the season, so when Kirky was feeling something he just came off. We want to go into the playoffs with our strongest squad available.”