ALLOA's Steven Hetherington called on his teammates to pick themselves up after suffering another crucial blow in the relegation fight.

The midfielder put in a battling performance as the Wasps dropped to the bottom of the Championship for the first time since August, following their home defeat to Partick Thistle.

Alloa struggled to create openings following an early Blair Spittal goal before veteran Scott McDonald stepped off the bench to notch a debut strike and seal the game for the visitors.

The defeat made it five-in-a-row in all competitions for the Wasps who have suddenly hit a bad run of form at the worst possible time.

And with a trip to Queen of the South to come this weekend, Hetherington was adamant it is up to them to get ready for the crucial encounter.

The Englishman said: "From the start of the season until now, you can say it's our bad patch.

"I think we will come out of it on the other end with the dressing room that we've got.

"There's still a lot of football to be played and we still have a chance.

"You are not going to keep the full form for the whole year. We knew from day one that it was going to be difficult and you can look at some of the teams in this league and say they are in a bit of a false position with the players and resources they've got.

"It's up to us to pick ourselves up and not get too downhearted. We can look at the individual mistakes but we can't dwell on them and have to put it to bed.

"We look forward to the next game and want to pick up a result."

Alloa were undone again by poor defensive errors for another week running.

Jim Goodwin spoke of his frustration after the match and the manager's thoughts were echoed by Hetherington.

The 26-year-old continued: "We conceded an early goal which is not ideal and it wasn't great from our part.

"Once we got the bad start out of the way, I thought we played pretty and came into the game in the second half.

"It looked like we were going to create chances and maybe nick a goal and get the equaliser. Then the second goal has just deflated us a wee bit.

"We created some chances but overall we are just frustrated not to take something from the game.

"Every goal is going to be something that you can pick the bones out of. In every goal, something has gone wrong somewhere.

"Every goal we are conceding at the moment is just not us."