ALLOA RFC president Gary McPhail is proud of what the club has achieved in the first half of the 2017/18 season.

The Griffins moved up to the BT Caledonia League Division One and have excelled, with the first team sitting third in the league table.

The Wee County outfit’s first team have lost just twice in the league, and McPhail revealed that the club is succeeding throughout every age group.

He told Advertiser Sport: “We have moved up a league this season and there are a lot of challenges for us and the players, particularly in terms of travel. A lot of the players work Saturday mornings and nights and if we have a trip to Caithness, which is a 12-hour round trip, it can be a huge challenge.

“The only two games we have lost have been away to the teams at the top of the league, Caithness and Strathmore, and we have gone into those games without our strongest side. But the shoe will be on the other foot when they come down to Earlsfield. We are optimistic of giving them a challenge at home.

“We are sitting third and have managed to consolidate our position in the division so now it’s all about making sure we progress as a club as a whole.

“Our under-14s and under-16s are doing really well and notably beat Stirling County. It’s a long time since that happened at any age group. There’s a lot of progress there and a lot of that is down to the partnerships we have with Alloa and Lornshill Academies.”

The club have the added incentive of a place in a national final at stake as they prepare to take on Grangemouth in the semi-final of the Caledonia Shield next month.

Alloa won the Caledonia Bowl back in 2015 and McPhail believes adding more silverware to the trophy cabinet would give the club a huge lift.

He said: “We have the Caley Shield semi-final on January 27 which is something we are really looking forward to. To get to the semi-final is a great achievement. We have already beaten Grangemouth at home this season but they have had some impressive results so we’ll be taking nothing for granted. However, we have a home tie which is all we could have asked for, and we are now only a couple of steps away from another trip to Murrayfield which would be a massive boost for the club.”

The Earlsfield side won funding for a new extension last summer and although work has yet to start on the project, the club are looking to build on their current setup on and off the pitch.

McPhail added: “The planning stage for the extension is taking longer than we envisaged because we had to change the type of roof for the building. But we are looking to get the work started as soon as possible, and once that happens there will be a lot of exciting times ahead in terms of increasing the size of the facilities we have at the club.”