ALLOA boss Barry Ferguson claimed Neil Parry still has a part to play for the Wasps despite losing his status as number one – and urged the club legend to fight for his place.

Long-serving Parry, part of the side which won promotion to the Championship in 2018 and a near-certainty to play every week since, has not featured since the league cup clash with Cowdenbeath last month.

Ferguson has instead preferred the returning Craig McDowall and then new signing David Hutton, who played in Saturday’s league opener at Peterhead.

The decision to drop Parry – who was not in the squad and did not travel to Balmoor – was met with anger from some fans amid fears the goalkeeper had been frozen out.

But Ferguson insisted that was not the case, and hinted the former Airdrie stopper could be part of the squad for Saturday’s clash with East Fife.

“Neil is still part of the squad,” Ferguson told Advertiser Sport.

“I will change the goalkeepers in the squad next week but I don’t want anybody travelling.

“It is difficult but you have got to make decisions. I wanted to bring David Hutton in because it’s an area of the pitch where I wanted competition for places.

“He is still a big part of my squad and I want him to fight for his place. In the coming weeks he could be back in – you never know.”

The Wasps’ league campaign got off to the worst possible start as a depleted side was deservedly beaten in the north-east.

But although several senior players were missing through injury and isolation, Ferguson said there was “no excuse” for such a poor display.

The manager was furious with his stars following their 2-0 defeat, which provoked an angry reaction from the travelling Wasps fans.

After the game Ferguson promised a “major reaction” in the coming weeks.

“I am really disappointed,” he said. “We are missing experienced players, guys who would be in contention to be in the starting 11, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. It’s not good enough.

“I am very honest and we had a long chat. We need to go and seriously work on things.

“The simple fact is we need a reaction for the game on Saturday.

“Peterhead were the better team which disappointed me. They were first to every ball, and every second ball they were first to as well. We would be here for half an hour if I had to list all the things we need to work on.

“There are a lot of things we need to work on – not just the players but myself and the coaching staff as well.

“We have had a few players with Covid and a few with injuries so it’s not been ideal, but I am not going to use that as an excuse. We still had 15 players, albeit with a couple of young ones.

“Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks we start to see some of those players coming back.

“We have worked hard but that is not the way I want my team to play. It’s not the type of performance we are going to see because next week we are going to see a major reaction.”