ALLOA striker Liam Buchanan admits not being in the team is frustrating but insists he's focused on the bigger picture.

Buchanan has had to bide his time in recent weeks as on-loan striker Innes Cameron has banged in the goals.

However, he came on from the bench on Saturday and rifled home a superb winner to give manager Peter Grant a selection headache for Dundee this Friday.

Buchanan said: "It's always difficult when a team gets a man sent off, as a neutral you automatically think [the team with the extra player] should go on and beat the team but it can be very difficult."

Asked what Grant said before he made his way onto the pitch, Buchanan said: "Just come on and score, that's what you've got to do.

"Even as a player, you want to come on and make an impact and try and get back in the team.

"It's important that you come on and make some sort of impact and, thankfully, I managed to get a goal.

"It's obviously been frustrating for myself, personally, just not getting on as much. Innes has hit a wee run of form and the gaffer's going with one striker, so it's been frustrating, but you've just got to keep training hard and think of the bigger picture which is the team picking up points.

"If you can make any sort of impact coming off the bench when you're called on, hopefully you can do that and get in the manager's thoughts."

Buchanan's goal sealed a massive three points for his side, who now sit just four points from safety and, astonishingly, five points from sixth.

However, Buchanan insists Alloa are only focused on escaping the relegation battle at the moment.

He continued: "I think we just want to be in touching distance. There's players in the changing who can handle this sort of pressure.

"We need to look after ourselves every week, there's no point looking at other scores if we haven't done our job. Hopefully, we can start bringing [the other teams] in even closer."

Alloa welcome Dundee this Friday and Buchanan knows his side are a match for anybody.

"They're a good side, very good players but we know if we perform we're a match for anybody in the league," he said.

"I think we've proved that this season, but just not had that consistency perhaps that's needed. We're hopeful now that we can kick on and have a good run in.

"First and foremost we've got to get out of the predicament we're in, we can't be thinking of anything other than relegation at the moment.

"It can change so quickly after a game, we'll see what happens this weekend. We'll just focus on ourselves."