ALLOA manager Barry Ferguson said his side showed character in their draw with Queen's Park at the weekend.

The visitors, one of the favourites for the cinch League One title, couldn't make the numerical advantage count and saw Simon Murray's opener cancelled by a late Steven Boyd free-kick.

Alloa played more than two thirds of the match with 10 men after Craig Howie was dismissed for two bookings.

Ferguson said: "Look, Howie's rash. He shouldn't be lunging in knowing he's on a booking.

"I was happy enough, we created a few chances with 11 men, then obviously when we go down to 10 men we need to play a certain way which is not ideal, we've got to sit behind the ball and try to frustrate and, hopefully, we get that odd chance from a set piece and that's what we spoke about and, thankfully, we got it."

After a disappointing result away to Clyde the previous week, Ferguson seemed happier, both with the performance and the result.

He continued: "One thing the boys showed today was character, that's the most important thing.

"I'm happy with the result [after] going down to 10 men. Queen's Park…move the ball pretty well, they never really cut us open, it was from our mistake that they got the goal. It was good character, good resilience from us.

"I'm happy with the response after going a goal down. It's easy to feel sorry for yourself, we didn't do that as they have previously. We'll take the point and continue to work. We've got a couple of injuries and obviously a suspension which is not ideal."

Ferguson has spoken in the past about altering the mindset at Alloa and repeated his thoughts post-match.

"I watched Alloa a number of times before I took the job," he said. "And that's one thing [he noticed]: they were always decent enough and getting beat. [Saturday] showed a bit of siege mentality."

Saturday saw a first start for Kevin Cawley for more than a month while Alan Trouten was once again on the bench. Clearly Ferguson is aiming to get all his players available as soon as possible to try and push forward and maintain some consistency.

He added: "We've got good quality, we just need to gel it all together. It's not going to happen overnight but i know what football's like, you've got to start winning as quickly as possible. You don't want to be a number of points behind teams going into November [and] December."