ALLOA'S Callum Crane is confident he can fill the void left by Calum Waters’ summer departure for Kilmarnock.

The young full-back has arrived on loan from Hibernian, initially until January, and says he is excited to play regular football for the Wasps.

And he reckons his spell at the Indodrill Stadium can give him the platform to go on and succeed at Easter Road.

Crane told Advertiser Sport: “I’ve been involved with the Hibs first-team squad for a while now. I’ve not played as much as I would have liked during pre-season but I’m ready and really excited to get some game time under my belt while I’m here.

"This can give me the platform to go on and become a better player. Calum Waters was here last year and got a move to the Premiership with Kilmarnock.

"He’s a great player – I played against him when he was coming through at Celtic and he was always very consistent. I’ve got big boots to fill but I’m confident I can do it.”

Crane revealed that he was convinced to join the Wasps after his colleagues at Hibs praised the club after the two sides met in last week’s Betfred Cup encounter.

He said: “I only heard good things about the club, and after the game last week, everyone at Hibs said they tried to play football the right way.

"They were impressed and said Alloa played well. I came down on Friday to meet the gaffer and he showed me around. I’ve been impressed so far and hopefully I’ll be able to kick on now and have a good season.”

The left-back only met his new team-mates 90 minutes before last Saturday’s league opener against Raith Rovers, but was handed a start and looked impressive despite Alloa being denied victory by a last-gasp equaliser.

Crane added: “I’ve not trained with the boys so it was a tough game to come into but I thought it was good.

"We were very good in the first half. In the second half we came under a lot of pressure but we held them off for a long time and we were unlucky to lose the goal right at the end.

“To lose that goal was gutting because we had defended well for 90 minutes. In a way it is a good point, but with the way we played I felt we should have got all three.

"But that’s football, and we just have to pick ourselves up and go again when we play East Fife on Saturday.”