THE Wasps' youngsters were dealt a harsh lesson as they crashed out of the SFA Youth Cup at the hands of holders Celtic at the third round stage.

A youthful Alloa side battled well, particularly in the first half, but were eventually overpowered by a Celtic side featuring three players who have already played for Brendan Rodgers’ first team.

Alloa were missing a number of key men, with Scott Cameron ineligible, Sam Fisher suspended and Ryan Hoggan and Declan McDonald both injured.

Celtic opened the scoring when Kerr McInroy fired home just two minutes in, but Alloa responded with plenty of good play as they attempted to strike on the counter.

But Jack Aitchison struck twice in 12 minutes to make it three before the break.

The impressive Mark Greene and Adam Martin both threatened for the home side but they fell further behind, Calvin Miller rifling home from the edge of the box.

Miller then went on to complete his hat-trick with two goals in two minutes, before Stephen Welsh and Ewan Henderson both found the net in the closing stages.

However, despite their heavy defeat, Alloa’s head of youth development Graeme Liveston believes his players will learn from the experience of playing against such high-quality opposition.

He told Advertiser Sport: “It’s a big learning curve for the players but it won’t do them any harm. I’d have been concerned if they just lay down to Celtic but they didn’t. They tried to take the game to them.

“We kept battling and gave them a couple of frights, but eventually we just ran out of steam.

“We are a very young team but there are some very good players in there. Some have already played in the first team and a lot of the others will in the future.”