PETER GRANT praised his Wasps for a "diligent" display in Dumfries as he claimed his first league win since replacing Jim Goodwin in the post.

The Alloa manager was delighted as his side broke their Championship duck with a comfortable win over Queen of the South.

Veteran Alan Trouten slotted the ball home midway through the second half to seal the three points in a day where Neil Parry was never overly stretched.

It means Grant achieved something his predecessor never quite could by winning a second-tier game before October.

The gaffer said: "We are absolutely delighted and we showed a different type of performance and a diligence to go and fight for everything.

"We know we have goal scorers in the team and you could see that from (Liam) Buchanan when he came on and brought out a wonderful save from Robby McCrorie.

"We had to show a diligence to defend well and I thought the boys did that fantastically well.

"It was completely different from last week when we were very tentative but this week we worked hard without the ball to get behind the ball.

"I don't think Neil had one save to make and we defended really well from the front right through the team."

It was a game of little quality for the most part in the Borders as both teams struggled to transform possession into openings.

But Alloa's goal was a thing of real beauty, started by Iain Flannigan, teed up by Robert Thomson, and finished off by Trouten.

"We are capable of that [superb flowing move for the goal]," Grant said. "We want to go and play expansive football and the midfield players want to get ahead of the ball, even when we were one up.

"That's something we want to get better at.

"Having less time to work with the players is the biggest difference between part and full-time football. You don't have the time to go through all of the strategic things on the pitch.

"I know the boys are intelligent enough to do that on the pitch.

"The most important thing is to win games of football and how you do it varies. People win games of football in different ways and we are paid to win games."

Grant handed a debut to former Cowdenbeath midfielder Blair Malcolm and was impressed by what he saw from his new recruit.

He said: "I was delighted with Blair. He's a young man who's not played many games and gave us that little bit of balance on the left hand side.

"He's got good energy and his quality on the ball was good. He understood what was being asked of him."