Alloa boss Danny Lennon reckons getting Brora Rangers away in the first round of the Petrofac Cup is one of the toughest draws his new-look side could have got.

The Wasps, who reached the final of the competition last term, will make the long trip north to Dudgeon Park to face Davie Kirkwood’s side on July 25 and the gaffer knows his men will have to be at their very best.

The 46-year-old manager is fully aware of the tricky nature of the draw, but is still confident his side have what it takes to progress.

Lennon told Advertiser sport: “It's a tough draw for a number of reasons. Brora won the highland league last year and were almost promoted into the 4th tier of Scottish football at the expense of Montrose. That shows they are a team with confidence, playing good football and enjoying a winning mentality. They have managed to attract the very talented Richard Britain from Ross County onto their playing staff, so their quality of squad has increased from last season. Any away tie presents its challenges, but this is about the furthest we could have travelled.

“I think it will be a close, competitive game of football, which we obviously hope to come out on top of. Nonetheless, I expect the qualities of the individuals we have in our squad to shine through and provide a performance that earns us the right to progress to the next round of the cup.” Lennon is still in the process of finalising his squad for the new season and will continue to assess a number of trialists over their up-coming pre-season friendlies.

He said: “We will make full use of the friendlies we have against Edinburgh City, Airdrie, Albion Rovers, Keith, Huntly and Inverurie to get ourselves as prepared as possible. We have a high turnover of players in our squad and this is the first competitive test for us. Experience tells me that it takes a good few weeks of competitive games for that number of new additions to a team to gel fully.” The former St Mirren boss is looking forward to the competitive action getting underway and expects a successful season for his Clackmannanshire outfit if he can land his top targets in the transfer market over the next month.

Lennon added: “I am excited about the squad we are building here and should everything go according to plan over the rest of the preseason, I expect us to improve on last season's standing.”