ANDY GRAHAM couldn't hide his disappointment as he missed out on the chance to make the first semi-final of his long career.

The veteran Alloa skipper missed the final penalty as Edinburgh City produced a stunning fightback to win the Irn-Bru Cup quarter final tie.

And for the former Hamilton Accies, Stirling Albion, Morton and Dumbarton player, the defeat ended his hopes of playing in the penultimate round for the first time.

The 35-year-old told Advertiser Sport: "I've never been to a semi-final in any competition, so the chance doesn't come about often.

"When you are younger, you just think these chances will happen all the time. But, they don't.

"So, for an opportunity to pass you is really disappointing and we are absolutely gutted."

Alloa had been in the hunt for their first Challenge Cup triumph since the turn of the millennium with their last victory coming when Terry Christie's Wasps defeated Inverness Caley Thistle on penalties in 1999.

Two up and cruising, after barely fifteen minutes, Jim Goodwin's men looked destined for a semi-final berth.

But, Edinburgh hit back to stun the Championship side and Graham was keen to praise their opponents.

He said: "No disrespect to Edinburgh City, but you should never go 2-0 up and not win a game.

"We're really disappointed to go out and in fairness I think we got what we deserved.

"We stopped doing what had got us the joy and got us the two goals.

"Edinburgh, to be fair, upped their game and started to play without fear. I've seen that before.

"Instead of being mentally stronger and staying up the park, we encouraged that by giving away silly, cheap fouls.

"But, credit to Edinburgh. I thought they were excellent and we've got to look at what they did as much as our own performance."

The Wasps were facing Dundee United last night as the Advertiser was going to print with Brechin heading to the Indodrill Stadium on Saturday for the third round of the Scottish Cup.

Barry Smith's side are on a wretched run of form and lost 5-1 at the weekend to runaway League One leaders Arbroath.

But, Graham insisted Alloa would need to react if they were to get a result.

He added: "We can't do anything about the Edinburgh game now. It's a cup competition and we are out.

"All we can do is get on with things and we want to put things right.

"I'd like to see a better response from us and we need to show a lot of character to get ourselves up for the Brechin game."