ALLOA captain Andy Graham admitted his side didn't deserve to win on Saturday but says they're now where they aimed to be.

The Wasps shared the points with Kelty Hearts on New Year's Eve in a 0-0 draw with neither side having many chances.

Speaking after the match Graham said: "I don't think either team did enough to warrant three points, I don't think anyone could claim they were much the better team.

"There wasn't a lot of chances in the game. They've hit the post from a long range shot, maybe Ross [MacIver] could have done better in the first half when he's clean through.

"I don't think there's a lot in the game. Not many chances, not a great spectacle but we'll take the clean sheet and move on. It's another point gained, that's the way to look at it."

Brian Rice was pleased to see his side record another clean sheet and Graham praised his fellow defenders for their efforts.

The veteran continued: "I think we've got good defenders regardless of who plays. We've not had enough clean sheets so it was pleasing to get that [on Saturday].

"I think Daniel Church was excellent which is great to see and, hopefully, he can take confidence from that and really kick on because there's a really good player in there. He maybe just needs to believe and I thought he was really, really good.

"I was delighted to get the clean sheet, not just for him because it's a team effort but we'll take it and move onto the next game."

However, Graham admitted his frustration at not getting the three points.

He added: "The last two games [Saturday's draw and the 2-2 draw with Clyde] the manager said he wanted more than two points which is what we've got. I've said all along, draws aren't great in the league, especially at home and the manager's big on that so he's disappointed.

"Boys are disappointed to draw the game but we didn't do enough to win it, it's not like I can stand here and say we deserved to win the game because we didn't and when you don't play that well the next best thing you can do is take a point and get a clean sheet and that's what we've done."

The point did mean that Alloa finished 2022 in the top four and that was the season's aim. They may have since dropped to fifth, but hold a game in hand over Montrose who are a point above.

He said: "That was the plan at the start of the season: to be in that top four and we're there at the start of the year so hopefully come the end of the season that's exactly where we'll be. The aim is to finish in the top four and do as well as we can.

"I think the league is very, very competitive. Peterhead and Clyde are starting to get a wee bit detached but as we saw last week they're a good side on their day, especially now Jim Duffy's taken over and they look a bigger threat so there isn't any easy games. Peterhead's a horrible place to go so the league's very, very competitive as you can see by the results every week.

"Draws are probably the thing that will kill the teams in the middle of the league so you need to turn those draws into wins and, hopefully, we can do that."

Meanwhile, Alloa's assistant manager Paddy Connolly recently celebrated 500 games as assistant manager and Graham was keen to praise his longevity.

"Paddy's brilliant," he said. "I played with Paddy at Stirling [Albion] in my first year there so I know what he's all about.

"He's a great guy to have about the place and it's testament to him that every single manager that's came in has thought: 'I'm keeping him on'. That doesn't happen a lot in modern day football so the fact that he's done that says everything about him so congratulations to him on that, 500 games at one club at part-time level is some going.

"Not even that but the amount of managers that have came in and so many different managers in terms of Peter Grant, Barry Ferguson, Jim Goodwin, Jack Ross [and] Paul Hartley, so many different personalities have came in but they've all kept Paddy so that's testament to him enough."