ALLOA boss Jim Goodwin feels his side may have lured themselves into a false sense of security as they were knocked out of the Irn-Bru Cup.

Goals from Dario Zanatta and Alan Trouten had set the Wasps on easy street after only 12 minutes against League Two Edinburgh City.

But, a goal from talisman Blair Henderson on the stroke of half time brought the capital club back into it before Sam Shepherd equalised midway through the second half.

The home side then won the shoutout after misses from Scott Taggart and Andy Graham ended the Wasps’ hunt for silverware.

Speaking after the loss, manager Goodwin told Advertiser Sport: “We are extremely disappointed to be out of the competition especially after starting so well.

“Obviously to get our noses in front and get two early goals on the doors was great.

“I’m not sure if we got into a false sense of security and thought it was going to be too easy.”

Alloa allowed the Citizens back into the game with the last kick of the ball in the first half, when Henderson nodded home Robbie McIntyre’s excellent free kick.

Goodwin insisted his side had worked on defending set plays during the week and so was particularly disappointed to lose a goal from one.

He continued: “We just dropped a little bit too deep after about 25 minutes and invited Edinburgh to put balls into our box

“The goal just on half time is obviously a bit of a sickener. We should have defended it better and gave away cheap free kick.

“So, we go from half a minute before half time and feeling good about ourselves and then getting done by a sucker punch.”

The Irishman had spoken during the week about taking the competition seriously as Alloa went in search of their first silverware since 2012.

But, he was left bitterly disappointed as his side fell at the quarter final hurdle.

He said: “We have taken the competition seriously right from the offset.

“I know some of the bigger teams use it as a chance to give their second string a runout but that has never been the case for ourselves.

“We respect the tournament and we try to win it.

“I think Edinburgh were the better team in the second half and we didn’t cope well enough with their play in the second half.

“In saying that, we didn’t impose our own game and didn’t knock the ball about as we have shown we can do.”

Due to contractual agreements, Alloa’s band of loanees were forced to sit out of the game at Ainslee Park.

Jake Hastie, Sam Roscoe, Liam Burt, and Connor Shields were all unavailable for the side with the likes of Zack Karadachki and Ahmed Aloulou drafted in from the cold to warm the bench.

But, Goodwin insisted the lack of depth had not caused his side to go out of the competition.

He said: “We’re not going to sign another four players for the Irn-Bru Cup.

“The loan boys play for their parent clubs in this competition and we accepted that when we signed the agreements.

“It would be quite stupid to run with a 24-man squad just so we can fulfill the fixtures in the Irn-Bru Cup.

“Both teams had 16 players in the squad on Saturday.

“So, that’s not the reason we have gone out of the competition.”