Alloa Athletic will be without the injured duo of David Weatherston (Calf) and Eddie Ferns (Knee) for the trip to Palmerston Park to face Queen of the South on the opening day of the SPFL Championship season.

Barry Smith will also be without Jonathan Tiffoney and Mark Docherty who are suspended for the match.

But the Wasps boss believes they can go into the game full of confidence.

Smith told Advertiser Sport, "We have had the two cup games so far and it has been great to get two wins and some confidence going within the team. Queens maybe strong at home but I don’t tend to look at records. It is all about what we are going to do on that given day because you can look too much at that kind of thing. Instead we will just look at that one game and make sure that we do the right things to give ourselves the best opportunity to win the game.” The Recreation Park men were this week paired with newly promoted Hamilton Academical in the second round of the League Cup but the gaffer reckons they must go there looking to win the game.

He said, "I don’t think it matters who we got in the draw for the league cup. We were unseeded so we knew it was likely to be one of the Premiership teams. Obviously, Hamilton have just been promoted but we had some good results against them last season and so it is about going there to give ourselves a chance of winning the cup tie. We played them in pre-season but in a 20-minute each way game there is not much to take out of it.” The 40-year-old former Dundee captain believes that his men must this year aim to improve on their 8th place finish in the SPFL Championship last season.

Smith added, “Everyone at the club can now look forward to the beginning of the league campaign this weekend. Every game is going to be tough but it is just about meeting the challenge head on and doing the right things. The priority for the club is to stay in the league but we want to be better than that. We know that success for Alloa Athletic is to stay in this league but as a group we have to aspire to achieve more than that and only time will tell if we can.”