Alloa favourite Stephen Simmons reckons Derek Riordan might just be the spark they need to ignite their season.

The 31-year-old midfielder felt that there has been loads of positives for the Wasps to build on in recent weeks but believes they just haven’t got the luck at the right times. The former Hearts star reckons his ex-capital city rival can help fire in the goals they have been lacking to propel them to safety.

Simmons told Advertiser Sport, “Deeks will be a big bonus to get him back because he has a lot of goals in him. You see it in training all the time. I played against him for years when we were kicking lumps out each other with Hibs and Hearts. The boy is an absolute goal machine. He is a such a talent that he only needs a half chance to turn a game in our favour and that can maybe be the difference for us.

“Teams seem to be taking half chances against us but it seems like we need to score a cracker if we are going to score. We can’t seem to finish off the easier chances but Derek can do that for us. It is something like that we need right now and maybe he can provide us with the wee boost we need in front of goal.

“I thought last weekend is the best we have played for a while, especially in the first half. Other than maybe the Morton game where we also played well, I thought we were really unlucky not to take anything from the game.

“They had one real chance and scored from it but that is the way it is going for us just now. We can take confidence from the way we passed the ball around on Saturday and hopefully we can take that into next week.” Alloa now face a crunch local derby at Recreation Park against rivals Falkirk but Simmons insists the team have no fears despite suffering their seventh straight defeat at their own ground last weekend.

The veteran midfielder doesn’t believe the current home form is affecting the players and he hopes they will take confidence from the way they played in the Queen of the South game.

He said, “The home form isn’t playing on my mind and I don’t think it is playing on anybody else’s mind because it has never been mentioned. We need to start taking the chances we get in our home games. We will take confidence from the good things we did last weekend and hopefully this time around we can take a few of the chances that we create.

“We don’t fear anybody. We have played them all before and if we can cut out the mistakes then we will do ok. Falkirk’s style is to pass the ball about the same as ourselves and with it being a wee derby game then I think that suits us.

“Don’t get me wrong, we have had a few poor games, like the Hamilton game, where we killed our chances before we had even got started. It is hard enough of a league without us giving teams a start. Nothing has really changed under Barry.

“Hopefully, last weekend is a sign of things to come in terms of the way we played and we are maybe settling down now under the new gaffer. We can’t keep giving goals away. We need to get back to having clean sheets, trying to get ahead in games and see where that takes us but hopefully a win over Falkirk can help us go on a wee run.” The Wasps fans’ favourite says the team must accept the criticism for their recent run having got the credit for their early season form but he warned they are not out of woods yet and the club must rally together for one final push to safety. Simmons added, “I think that even although we have the five point gap, we need another few wins because anything is possible in this league. We have seen that anyone can beat each other.

“It is easy to go on a run with some confidence so we don’t think we’re safe for a minute and we will be giving everything to get those wins from now til the end of the season.

“We still look forward to the games, it is a great league to play in and we are enjoying ourselves. Fans are entitled to criticise us because they pay their money and they have every right to have go when we are under performing.

“But the majority of the fans have been excellent recently and have really backed us. We have had all the plaudits for the last few years, if we get criticised then we have to be big enough to get on with it and come again because that’s football.”