Alloa manager Danny Lennon was full of praise for his new loan signings Conor McManus and Michael Duffy after the Wasps’ pre-season friendly with Albion Rovers.

The Celtic duo made their debuts in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at the Indodrill Stadium, and Lennon insisted he is delighted to have them on board.

And the manager believes the experience of playing in the Championship will mean they go back to their parent club having improved hugely.

Lennon told Advertiser Sport: “It’s so important to be able to bring in quality young players. We’re delighted to have acquired the services of these two players from Celtic. I watched them a few times when I was managing Scotland Under-21s and I was highly impressed with both of them. We’re over the moon to have them playing for Alloa.

“It’s another part of what Celtic see as their development and I think it works well for us. It suits all parties. We are getting good quality players who we would never be able to retain ourselves. They’re getting great experience in a highly competitive league, and Celtic will be the winners at the end of the day when they get good players going back with that type of experience under their belt.” Lennon admitted the club’s next pre-season friendly against Keith was still all about getting the players up to speed ahead of the new season, which kicks off with a visit to Brora in the first round of the Petrofac Training Cup.

He added: “There has been a big turnaround of players at the club. There’s a few coming back from injury who are maybe in need of more minutes on the pitch. They need to get up to match sharpness, so it’s important that we give them that. We have an Oban tournament coming up this weekend with the young boys, so we may send one or two who are playing catch-up to get important minutes under their belts there.

“Pre-season is all about peaking, and we’re hoping that that will come on July 25 and the first and eighth of August. The boys are showing terrific willingness and have taken on board everything we’ve asked of them. I think the jigsaw is finally coming together.”