ALLOA'S two-goal hero Craig Malcolm put last Saturday's brace down to pure perseverance after he fired his side into the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.

The striker endured a frustrating first half, hitting the crossbar with a header as the Wasps went in at the break a goal down, but came out firing in the second half.

The former Stranraer man has now scored four in as many games and says his purple patch has been helped by his team-mates.

Malcolm told Advertiser Sport: "I knew I was going to get chances because we have a lot of creative players in the team who can create those openings. Thankfully I was able to take a couple of them.

"When the header hit the bar in the first half I thought it was going to be one of those days where nothing goes for you.

"It was a frustrating first half because I didn't get as much of the ball as I would have liked but in that position you just have to keep working and take your next chance when it comes."

Malcolm says confidence was the driving force behind Alloa's second-half turnaround, and insisted that the squad is made of sterner stuff now than they were during their poor start to the season.

He said: "At half time we knew that we would get chances. When they come along you just have to take them.

"We are on a good run just now and confidence is one of the biggest assets you can have in football. It helps when you're playing with a smile on your face and picking up wins.

"It was a different type of game to what we've been used to over the past few weeks and I think six or seven weeks ago we might not have responded the way we did to going behind.

"The wins we've had recently have just given us an extra bit of confidence we needed to come back into it. We set our gameplan out before the game and everyone worked hard."

Alloa face the daunting prospect of playing the top two teams in League One, Ayr United and Raith Rovers, in successive weeks, but the striker says the mood in the camp is such that the players are confident of taking maximum points.

Malcolm added: "We have a couple of tough games coming up in the next couple of weeks against the top teams in the league but we are getting those games at a good time.

"We are looking forward to them, and we will go into the Ayr game confident of picking up three points."