ALLOA Athletic boss Jack Ross says games like the 3-1 defeat to St Mirren will not be the ones to decide their fate in the SPFL Championship this season. 

The Wasps remain five points adrift of nearest rivals Livingston and are now at least 10 points behind the rest, but the gaffer won’t apologise for his side throwing caution to the wind late on after they conceded a late third at the Paisley 20/21 Stadium. 

The former Hearts Under 20s coach believes his side’s display for long spells of the Saints game proves they still have a good chance of fighting their way out of danger. 

Ross told Advertiser sport: “After a good start, I was disappointed at the goals we lost, certainly the second and third goals, although it didn’t really concern me about the third goal as we were chasing the game by then.

"It is the second goal that was the most disappointing one. It’s an individual mistake at a crucial time in the game and you can pick the bones out of any goal, but what we are now trying to do is be competitive in every game we play. 

“We can take positives from the fact that we competed well against a full time team who were in the Premier League last season and sometimes you have to take that step back and look it that way.

"In the last ten, fifteen minutes of the game, much like last week, there is no point coming away and saying we were unlucky to lose 2-1. I prefer to go for it to try and get something out of these games and here it just went the other way for us.  

“There are loads and loads of positives for us to take again, my job is to make sure the players keep believing that. I’m not the one who is out there, knocking my pan in for ninety minutes and the one who has to go home and say we lost again, it is easy for me to say it but I will do everything to make sure they keep believing that. 

“We made individual mistakes that cost us goals, but we will speak about that in a constructive way, but in terms in what I am getting from the players, I can have absolutely no complaints what’s so ever.

"As long as I get that between now and the end of the season, then we will get results and these will define our season, not this one.  The day will come up, we know that and these will be the games which decide our fate.”

Ross was buoyed by the continued progress of young striker Isaac Layne who got the opening goal of the game with a penalty kick he earned himself, and although the Wasps boss believes that decision was a lucky one, he also believes Layne can get even better still in the remainder of the season. 

He said: “I think we had a wee bit of fortune with the penalty. I don’t think the player could do an awful lot of the ball hitting his arm and we didn’t even claim for it. There is sometimes a bit of ambiguity over if they will be given and that’s the wee bit of fortune we need and sometimes it has been deserved over the course of the last 4 or 5 games.

"In fairness to Isaac, I was pleased for him because his performances have improved recently and he showed great composure so we encouraged him to go and take the penalty. 

“Isaac then had a great chance to put us back ahead and these are the fine lines between winning or not. These are moments that you can reflect upon whether he had scored because then the game takes a different completion again.

"From Isaac’s point of view, he is putting himself in good areas and is becoming recognised as a threat to defenders and he was certainly a handful again.

"It is important to remember that he has not really played at this level before and he was playing League One football only a few weeks ago, so that is encouraging for us.”

The 39-year-old boss revealed that he had been dealt a double hammer blow after the game with the news that defenders Michael Doyle and Scott McKenna would both likely be leaving the club before the end of the month, but he hopes the break in action will allow them reshuffle the pack and be ready for Rangers. 

Ross added: “It’s probably not a bad thing to have a break next week as the players have worked hard, they have put a great deal into the last weeks.

"This now allows us to lick our wounds a bit, because the players are disappointed, we must keep upbeat, we will welcome the break and we will now have to do some adjustments in squad wise in not a lot of time. 

“Michael Doyle is going over to Ireland to have a trial with Cork City, which we wish him well and Scott McKenna’s loan period from Aberdeen is coming to an end so that’s a real blow for us.”