Alloa keeper Andy McNeil says their 3-2 League Cup defeat to Berwick Rangers was a reality check for them ahead of a difficult SPFL Championship campaign that gets underway against Queen of the South this weekend.

The new Wasps shotstopper produced a string of top saves on his full competitive debut for the club, but it ultimately ended in disappointment as they crashed out to Colin Cameron’s men and he now believes lessons must be learned from the loss.

It has been a summer of upheaval at the Indodrill Stadium as Danny Lennon assembled a new-look squad and his first signing of the summer believes there is much more improvement to come as the squad begins to gel.

McNeil told Advertiser sport: “I think we can still be massively positive for the new season. We had a great pre-season, but there has been a huge turnaround in personnel with only four or five boys remaining from last season so that will take time to bed all the new boys in.

“The manager is starting to get his brand of football across at the club which he wasn’t able to do last season so it was always going to be a bit of a transition period for us. These things can take time, and while I don’t believe it will take that long with this group of players, Berwick was definitely a wake up call for us.

“Hopefully it is just the slap of reality we need after a good pre-season and that will help to kick us into gear and re-focus ahead of a long, tough season. We have so much to take away from the Berwick game and learn from that I think it will hold us in good stead for the upcoming season.

“Ultimately, I don’t think you can blame the system we played. We should be able to play any formation when you are playing a team two leagues below and are 2-0 up so that’s what makes this all the more difficult to take.” McNeil put in a man-of-the-match performance to help his side force extra time despite a bad day at the office last weekend, before they eventually succumbed to a late David Banjo winner, but the former Hibernian star reckons they got exactly what they deserved out of the game.

He said: “It is a really disappointing defeat for us. I think Berwick played really well throughout the game, they played to the same standard where as we dropped our levels after half time for whatever reason and that has cost us. They caused us problems in the first half, but we were well on top, got the two goals and had other good chances to put the game to bed.

“We were comfortable in our lead at the break, but we dropped our level and they have punished us for that lack of concentration. They deserve the win in the end, but it is still a difficult one to take because we should’ve been out of sight.

“I don’t mind partaking in the game a bit more and doing my bit for the team, but when the other team is having way more shots on goal and chances then you know you’re in trouble.” Alloa go into their curtain raiser against the Doonhamers as massive underdogs on Saturday having failed to win on their last seven trips to Palmerston Park, but the 28-year-old is confident they can still cause an upset.

McNeil added: “We have a fair amount of experience in the dressing room and we have all lost games like this one before, but it is all about how we react and bounce back from this.

“We must put this out of our minds and focus on the job at hand against Queen of the South. We will work hard to fix what went wrong against Berwick, which was a lot, but the Queens game will be totally different because they will go in as the favourites.

“They’re a good side and it is always a difficult place to go and win, but we can still be confident of getting a result if we play to the levels we’re capable of.”