IT WAS a game which could have been summed up with an old cliche but for many of the Wasps’ faithful it was so much more.

For 45 minutes of this enthralling Championship opener, Partick Thistle didn’t know what had hit them as Alloa swarmed all over their full-time opponents in one of their best halves of football in some time.

Perhaps the only disappointment will be that they only had Alan Trouten’s deflected goal to show for it and ultimately couldn’t deny a rampant Thistle the equaliser their second half showing deserved.

Grant has wasted little time in moulding the Wasps in his image and at times the side’s new fluidity ran Thistle ragged in the game’s opening stages.

The signs had been there in last week’s Betfred Cup win that Grant’s formation change could bear fruit and in sunny Clacks it was glistening like a freshly picked apple.

Kevin Cawley was involved from the start, picking up the ball from deep and driving through the increasingly beleaguered Thistle ranks. If it wasn’t Cawley, then pick any from Iain Flannigan, Trouten, Liam Buchanan or Kevin O’Hara and they’d be in the thick of things, harrying the visitors and drifting into the wide areas to stretch the play.

Side-to-side and end-to-end this was domination in all but chance creation in the opening half hour. Jon Robertson fired a dangerous looking volley just past the post and Cawley curled an effort wide and even although Neil Parry – back after his nasty injury against Hibs – had to push Shea Gordon’s header over the bar, Alloa were undoubtedly on top.

It wasn’t long before they got their just rewards and again the elusive Cawley was at the heart of things.

Alloa broke up the park and O’Hara, who was once again very impressive, forced Thistle skipper Stuart Bannigan to give the ball away to Cawley in the middle of the park.

The little winger burst into the box, evaded the attention of two Thistle defenders before laying it off to the onrushing Stevie Hetherington.

The Englishman steadied himself before firing towards goal only for Trouten to stick a leg out and send it beyond the helpless Jamie Sneddon.

No one could begrudge Alloa the lead as the Wasps outmatched the visitors all over the park and it should have been two as the half raced towards the break.

Nearly every player in a home shirt touched the ball as they quickly moved from one side of the pitch to the other. When O’Hara burst into the box and put it on a plate for Trouten, the veteran surprisingly fired it into the railway end instead of Sneddon’s net.

Grant – who had opted for a more traditional black polo over his more colourful number sported in Blair Malcolm’s unveiling – must have been delighted with every aspect to his side’s play.

Not only were they holding onto the ball, but they were denying Thistle the chance to build anything.

Gary Caldwell’s Thistle, an outside bet for the league, were well and truly on the ropes by the time Nick Walsh mercifully blew the half-time whistle.

Their half-time rollicking would have still been ringing in their ears when they flew out of the traps and Ryan Williamson forced Parry down to his left in the opening seconds.

The keeper had to be at his best moments later when he threw out a hand to divert Joe Cardle’s hooked effort over and stop Thistle from snatching the momentum.

The visitor’s tails were well and truly up now and Alloa couldn’t deny them for long. Just as the game neared the hour mark, Cardle levelled as he reacted quickest to Parry’s flying save onto the bar to tap home.

The Thistle barrage continued. First, former Scotland striker Kenny Miller, at the ripe old age of 39, forced Andy Graham to block for a corner and then Tam O’Ware’s header crashed against Parry’s bar.

All of the fluidity and promise of the first was gone as Thistle flexed their relatively superior muscles and pinned Alloa inside their own half. It seemed like a matter of when rather than if the Wasps’ goal would fold.

But, as it was under Jim Goodwin and clearly now is under Grant, this is not a team which easily folds and as the clocked ticked towards the 90-minute mark, it was Alloa who looked the likelier to find the winner.

Hetherington once again drove towards the Thistle box and, after playing a neat one-two with substitute Robert Thomson, fired down Sneddon’s throat.

There was still time for Parry to once again to come up with some heroics as he tipped a goal bound Miller header past the post.

Neither side could find a winner, however, and in the end it was a point which satisfied most of the Recs faithful.

ALLOA: Parry, Robertson, Taggart, Graham, Dick, Hetherington, Flannigan, Cawley, Buchanan, Trouten, O'Hara. SUBS: Brown, Malcolm, Thomson, Stirling, O'Donnell, Gillespie, Henry.