ALLOA’S assistant manager Paddy Connolly called for the club to break the "cycle" of poor discipline as Alloa once again finished a match with 10 men.

For the fourth time this season Alloa have had a man sent off during a home league match as they lost 2-1 to a Dumbarton side who hadn’t won a game in their previous six matches.

Connolly, who attended the post-match interview in the absence of Barry Ferguson, said: “[It's] very disappointing...the way the game panned out...disappointed with the result.

“We spoke at half time about having a wee bit more urgency; there was no urgency in the game. We had a lot of possession without doing anything with the ball and it seems to be a cycle of games at home where, when teams sit deep, we struggle to break them down.”

Speaking about what had gone wrong, Connolly continued: “I think we got done on the counter a wee bit with the first goal, in terms of that we lost our shape and discipline a wee bit, obviously Nando getting sent off that’s a cycle.

“The gaffer spoke about that happening too much as well, where you know it’s four or five games at home where we’ve finished at home with ten men, and we’ve only played seven or eight home games so that’s a cycle we need to break as well and in terms of that overall, really disappointing.”

Connolly also spoke about how his side have a knack for beating the teams at the top of the league but have struggled against the bottom sides.

Talking about Fernandy Mendy’s red card: “Today [Saturday] I can’t really defend Nando, I’ve spoken to him about it. He’s on a booking and he’s lifted his hands, it’s a booking so it’s a red card so I can’t really defend [him].

“He knows, he’s big enough and he’s apologised to the manager.”

Connolly added: “We’ve maybe got a wee discipline problem and...maybe it’s something we need to address, in terms of being able to compete in games and keeping 11 men on the park.”

Looking forward to next week’s third round Scottish Cup tie against Bonnyrigg Rose, Connolly said his side need to pick themselves back up.

He added: “We’ll be fully prepared for them and no doubt it will be our strongest team going for that because we want to progress in the cup as well."