ALLOA ATHLETIC bounced back from last week’s defeat with a hard-fought win against Montrose.

The Wasps were penned in their own box for most of the first half but came out the better side after the break, with super sub Adam King smashing it home.

The win puts Alloa back in the play-off spots, with manager Brian Rice praising his side’s resolve in the second half.

Rice said: “We started the game okay and then we lost momentum and were poor for the rest of the first half.

“I changed it at half time, made a few changes, changed the shape and we got a reaction which I was hoping for.”

“The second half, we looked a lot more like ourselves. We scored a really good goal, and we created some chances.

“We had to defend our lead at the end. After the disappointing result last week, it was important we bounced back.

“We’re good at bouncing back and we’ve got a great habit of managing it. Today is a huge three points because Montrose are challenging for it and they’re a good team. It was a hard fought three points.”

Rice opted for three changes during the break with King, Luke Donnelly and Jon Robertson replacing Conor Sammon, Luke Strachan and Murray Miller.

The subs immediately changed the game, with man of the match Quinn Coulson picking out Donnelly who flicked it to King to score.

“It’s my job to put the proper team on the pitch,” Rice continued. “I think I had it first half, we just didn’t perform to the levels that we expect.

“I like high energy football and my team being courageous on the ball – we had that for 15 minutes but for some reason, we lost it.

“Montrose put us under a lot of pressure but the second half was a lot more like ourselves.

Alloa’s win against Montrose puts the Wasps back into fourth place, tied with third place FC Edinburgh.

With just ten games to go, Rice will be aiming to keep the pressure up, particularly with a trip to league leaders Dunfermline next on the cards.

“Today’s win keeps us in there fighting,” Rice added. “That’s all I can ask of them – keep us up there, keep fighting and make sure we don’t put ourselves out the fight for the playoff spot.

“I say it every week: these boys give me absolutely everything. There’s only been a couple times all season where we’ve let ourselves down.

“Our home record has been really good and I’m delighted for all of them today. Great credit to the full squad, the squad won it today. The subs going on, some injured boys cheering them on – it takes a team to win like that.

“We’ll go into Dunfermline with some confidence because we’ve played well against them before.

“First game of the season, it was a really good game. I’m hoping we can go, express ourselves and have a go. We’ve got nothing to lose. I want us to go and take the game to them.”