Alloa boss Barry Smith reckons his side’s clash with relegation rivals Livingston is their most important of the SPFL Championship season so far.

Mark Burchill’s men are only three points behind the Wasps and would leap frog them in the table with victory on Tuesday night, while a win for the visitors at Almondvale would open up six point gap to the bottom club and also see them climb above Cowdenbeath into eighth.

The Clackmannanshire outfit have never won at the home of the Lions, but for the gaffer those kind of stats will only motivate his side even more.

Smith told Advertiser sport: “It is always a good thing to have another game come around so quickly after a defeat because the lads will have something to prove. It is a huge game for us against Livingston mainly due to the fact that we can put a bit of distance between ourselves and them with a win as well as being able to climb above Cowdenbeath at the same time. We know it will not be an easy game for us because the club has never won there before, but records like that are made to be broken and hopefully we can do that on Tuesday. “Livingston have picked up a wee bit under Mark and have gained a few points in recent weeks, but it is still mainly the same team from the one we beat at Alloa in November so we can take confidence from that this time around. I think it would be a big psychological boost for us because if we go above Cowdenbeath then we can start looking up the way and try to then catch Dumbarton. That is the way we must look at things and it is important to start clawing into that gap they have opened up.” Smith will be without new signing Phil Roberts, who became the club’s fourth arrival of the January transfer window, after the on-loan Dundee forward had to fly home to London for personal reasons, but fellow new boys Greg Rutherford, Isaac Layne and Calaum Jahraldo-Martin are all available.

Meanwhile, there is a further boost for the club as injured duo of Iain Flannigan and Adam Asghar stepped up their recovery by taking part in a closed-doors friendly on Monday.