TO SAY Alloa were woeful at the weekend would be an understatement.

Two goals from Clyde's David Goodwillie, either side of Stefan Scougall's equaliser, ensured a second league defeat in three for Barry Ferguson's men.

"First half; never played well at all," the Alloa gaffer said. "Second half, again, we started really poorly.

"Had to change the formation, make a number of changes and then we get the goal and we're on the front foot. Then, if you're not going to win the game, you've got to see the game out. To lose a goal in the last couple of minutes is not good enough."

What is perhaps most frustrating, and certainly is for Ferguson, is that such a dreadful performance followed a much-more impressive display in the previous week against East Fife.

That 3-1 victory looked as if the intensity Ferguson and his players spoke of in the training sessions finally clicked, a lightbulb moment where everyone was now singing from the same hymn sheet.

Asked if he can pinpoint the reason for the drop in performance from the previous match to Saturday, Ferguson said: "No, that's a worry. [It's a] similar team. You seen the performance [against East Fife], how they played. Then to go from that level back down; it was basically the same sort of performance as Peterhead.

"It's a concern, I need to sort that as quickly as possible and I will sort that as quickly as possible.

"If you're not going to be consistently performing you're not going to be in the team, that's the most important thing.

"As I said, you can't go from being so dominant last week to not laying a finger on Clyde until we make the formation change. There's no excuses about the formation, last week it worked really well. We worked on it again and then obviously have to go and change it by bringing a central midfielder on to left back [and] a young player out wide.

"I'm not going to beat about the bush, it's not good enough."

Unfortunately the pressure is now on to make sure that East Fife result wasn't a fluke. The pre-match preparation was disrupted when Daniel Church returned a positive Covid-19 test just hours before kick-off.

With no other recognised left-back in the squad, the back five that were so assured against East Fife now featured Steven Boyd in the left wing-back role.

The opening first 45 minutes were frantic with both teams struggling to keep control of the ball. Alloa had some decent possession however they were unable to register a shot on target with a number of shots, including direct free-kicks, failing to trouble David Mitchell.

A few incidents in the first half gave the impression it was going to be a long day. After a positive performance against East Fife, Fernandy Mendy was poor with numerous misplaced passes. A switch by Andy Graham saw Mendy's attempt to control it bounce off him and out the park. From an Alloa corner Mark Durnan blocked the keeper's kick, allegedly injuring the keeper and earning him a yellow card.

After the break Alloa hardly looked any better. King's dreadful first touch allowed Clyde to regain possession and Goodwillie take the first shot of the half. A free kick for Alloa allowed Scott Taggart to finally test Mitchell but the effort was tame and easy for the keeper to collect.

To cap a poor day for Mendy, he was at fault for Clyde's first. Goodwillie wanted Ross Cunningham's cross more than the defender and he managed to get in front of him to power the header past a hopeless David Hutton.

Following the goal Ferguson made the changes, bringing on Jon Robertson, Ben Armour and Cammy O'Donnell to replace Mendy, King and Boyd. With Robertson in at left-back and Alloa now in a 4-4-2 the team looked more balanced and within minutes they had equalised.

New singing Mouhamed Niang's ball was controlled well by Sammon and he managed to poke the ball into Scougall's feet. Much like his first Alloa goal against Arbroath last season, the effort – while on target – wasn't great and Mitchell should definitely have saved it. However, the ball squirmed into the net and Alloa were back on level terms.

From that moment Alloa finally looked like a team who could go on and win the match. A decent Taggart effort was blocked by the Clyde defence before a Scougall cross was inches too high for a leaping O'Donnell to connect with.

Alloa's best chance of the match would soon fall for Armour and he could not have asked for a better opportunity to register his first goal for the club. A great cut inside by Taggart allowed him to left his head and find Armour in the box. His first-time effort was blocked well and his rebound was deflected just inches past the post.

The lack of a cutting edge from Alloa's forwards was evident once more as Niang's through ball found Sammon but his first time effort was wild and nowhere near the target.

As so often happens in football, teams are punished for not taking their chances. Goodwillie found himself one on one with Andy Graham and despite showing the striker to the line, a great piece of skill saw the striker around the captain's challenge and he blasted the ball into the roof of the net.

Ferguson said: "The consistency levels…you can't go from that performance [against East Fife] to that, we didn't lay a glove on them, we never passed the ball.

"Then we start to pass the goal and we get the goal, we get it from a good bit of movement. Then we take control of the game.

"The disappointing thing [is] when it's not going for you in front of goal you need to see out the game. Defensively at their second goal was poor as well, we shouldn't be letting a player like Goodwillie get that time and space to run across the line and finish."

ALLOA: Hutton, Taggart, Graham, Mendy (Robertson), Durnan, Boyd (Armour), King (O'Donnell), Niang, Scougall, Sammon. UNUSED SUBS: Armstrong, Lamont, McDowall