TWO second half minutes was all it took for Alloa to snatch a point from the jaws of defeat as Kevin O’Hara, who was running on more juice than the latest Duracell, came alive in a game defined by its moments.

Head up, a simple glance over his shoulder, an innocuous looking ball was played into the feet of the frontman who flicked it around the corner and into the path of the onrushing Alan Trouten.

As Queens defenders stopped, Trouten was already steaming towards goal with the most delicate of touches perfectly teeing up the chance for a shot. The veteran needed no second invitation as he poked home via the post.

Alloa had been trailing by two Queen of the South first half strikes at this point but remarkably it was game on.

The Queens inquiry was still in its early stages when Liam Buchanan - who had gotten over his surprise relegation to the bench - barged Lewis Kidd off the ball and spotted O’Hara’s run down the left. The winger doffed his stetson, put on the afterburners, and walloped a left footed ping into Robby McCrorie’s top corner.

Jubilation broke out around the Recs as Alloa completed the seemingly improbable to banish the ghosts of a stuttering first half and earn a much merited point; and yet, had Robbie Deas not shown remarkable athleticism to clear from underneath his own crossbar, the emotion could have so easily turned to despair once again.

How to judge this game of moments, then, which felt equally like one point gained yet two points lost? How to assess Alloa’s performance which looked so far beyond recovery at half time that a priest had been called to read Peter Grant’s side their last rites?

Those who want a stick with which to beat the Wasps could rightly point the opening 45 where Queens made the most of their generosity at the back to take a commanding lead into the break.

Stephen Dobbie, the wily old fox of Scottish football, is hardly a man you want to offer time and space on the ball, but surely even he couldn’t believe his luck when he opened the scoring.

As the ball dropped out for a throw-in, Jon Robertson and Adam Brown looked around for their men; but, it was already too late.

Dobbie glided across the Recs turf and controlled the ball with his left foot. Andy Graham and Deas tried to react, but he simply dropped the shoulder and ghosted into the Alloa box, before thundering a shot in off the post to give Queens the lead.

A haunting Jack Hamilton return, who out jumped the Alloa defence to make it two seconds after Dobbie’s opener, seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of the Wasps and long before David Lowe’s half-time whistle the points seemed destined for the bus back to Dumfries.

The two strikes aside, it could easily have been three had Michael Paton glanced up even just once to play in Dobbie for a tap-in when instead Jamie MacDonald came to Alloa’s rescue.

Queen of the South’s hitman took matters into his own hands either side of the break, first forcing MacDonald to push an effort away for a corner, before firing tamely into the Kilmarnock loanee’s stomach when it seemed for all the world he was going to give his side an unassailable lead.

All too often, lovely, intricate moves from the hosts broke down. On a rare first half occasion, Adam Brown’s inviting delivery into the visitors’ box only needed a finish but Kevin Cawley’s poke was cleared off the line by a combination of a defender and McCrorie.

These struggles hardly seemed to matter when O’Hara worked his magic but, as Grant later admitted himself, there’s a feeling this team failed to live up to the high standards they set themselves for large parts of this game.

Two moments of Wee County witchcraft was enough, however, to send the faithful home in high spirits.