MOUHAMED NIANG believes Alloa deserved more from their performance against Celtic and says the team have to now push on in the league.

Niang was everywhere throughout the match and gave one of his stronger performances in an Alloa shirt, however the team just couldn’t take Ange Postecoglou’s men to extra time.

Speaking exclusively to Advertiser Sport, Niang said: “I thought we gave it our all. It was a big game for us. Playing against Celtic, you don’t really get that chance very often, they’re a big club.

“The last few weeks I feel like we’ve picked up our performances; we’ve been unlucky against Montrose and Queen’s Park, but it was good to get away from the league and play against Celtic.

“I thought the boys were brilliant – we deserved something from the game. We deserved to go to extra time.”

Now the tie is over, Alloa return to league duty this weekend with a trip to Clyde and Niang knows it’s time for the club to turn their season around.

Asked how important it is to retain the performance levels from the Celtic game in the league, Niang said: “It’s vital. We’ve not been good enough in the league.

“We need to be honest. We’ve not been good enough and it’s important that we start winning games because we really want to be in those play-off positions.

“There’s no hiding from that; we want to push on, so, hopefully, we can pick up a good few results and get up the league.”

By the time Alloa make the trip to Clyde this Saturday, it will be almost three months since their last league in on October 30.

Time is running out for the club to get themselves in a promotion play off spot but Niang is confident it can be done and says performances have improved recently.

“It’s about confidence,” he continued. “It’s when things aren’t going your way. I know what it’s like when other teams get one chance and score.

“I feel in the last three weeks we’ve reacted well to conceding. You don’t want to concede all the time but when you do we don’t want to put our heads down.

“I don’t think teams have played us off the park. There’s only one time since I’ve been at Alloa when I’ve came off the park, held my hand up and said we were second best today.

“Other than that I just think we’ve been short of confidence and hopefully we can kick on and get a few results.”