ANDY GRAHAM admitted he was gutted Alloa were left with nothing to show for their efforts after an impressive cup display against Dundee United.

The Wasps impressed in defeat as they lost out to their Championship opponents in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.

And the captain reckons his side would have been good value for a place in the fifth-round draw.

Graham told Advertiser Sport: “When you play a team from a higher level and they come down and play you off the park, you hold your hands up, but I don’t think that happened.

"It’s so disappointing to come off having lost because I felt there was nothing in the game, especially in the first half. If anything, we were the better side. We certainly had the better chances before half time.

“To lose the goal right on the stroke of half time was disappointing but the boys deserve credit for sticking to the gameplan.

"We worked on it on Thursday night in training and I thought it worked well. The problem came when we conceded, because that made the second half difficult for us.

“United are a good side and they have a lot of players who can hurt you. They’ve shown that in the Championship this season.

"When they go 1-0 up it makes it difficult to get back in the game but we gave it a good go. We were really unlucky to concede the second because it took a huge deflection.”

The defender felt he was fouled in the build-up to United’s vital opener, and called into question several other decisions he felt could have gone Alloa’s way.

He said: “Whenever you lose a goal from a set-piece you feel you should do better.

"I did feel I was blocked off and that stopped me getting to Mark Durnan, but the referee thought differently, as he did with a few other calls throughout the game. We responded well to that, but it just wasn’t to be.”

Despite the loss, the skipper is confident that his side will be in the League One promotion mix if they can produce a similar kind of performance in their remaining fixtures, starting on Saturday against Raith Rovers.

Graham added: “If we play like that in the league we will win nine games out of ten. The intensity and the work-rate were good.

"We’ve got some new guys to get settled into the team and the game will obviously have helped with that.

"I’m looking forward to the game on Saturday and hopefully we can replicate the performance and get the win.”