Rangers B 4-1 Alloa: Wasps out of SPFL Trust Trophy

The Wasps travelled to Greenock to play Rangers B, two and a half weeks after the match was set to be played.

David McKay came into the defence in a slightly rotated squad, lining up alongside Morgyn Neill and Scott Taggart in front of Tochukwu Ogayi.

Euan Deveney and Steven Buhanan slotted in as wing backs on either end of Steven Hetherington and Kurtis Roberts.

Quinn Coulson was deployed in the more attacking midfielder role behind a front two of Luke Donnelly and Bradley Rodden.

Rangers B took an early lead through Ross MaCausland, who showed strong footwork to twist past the Alloa defence. 

Alloa grew into the half not long after, playing some really good football and proving themselves as the more experienced side on the pitch.

Their efforts were rewarded just before the half time whistle, as Quinn Coulson sent an effort crashing into the post, which landed in front of Brad Rodden who managed to tap it home.

The sides came out the half pretty evenly matched, before Alloa got themselves on the strong foot once more.

Strong chances came for Sammon, Deveney and Donnelly but they couldn’t find a way to break down Rangers’ tight defence.

Unfortunately, towards the end, it unravelled for Alloa as Rangers found a way through, with Findlay Curtis getting on the end of a loose ball to fire it into the bottom corner.

Rangers scored another very quickly after and were then awarded a penalty after Ogayi made a lunge for the ball, instead catching Christopher Eadie.

Arron Lyall made no mistake from the spot, ensuring Rangers B went through to the next round of the cup.

Paddy Connolly, assistant manager, said: “It’s a disappointing result and it’s really disappointing in terms of the way the game finished.

“We looked at this as an opportunity to let some boys who haven’t had as much game time to perhaps stake a claim and from the result, you could argue they’ve maybe not done that.

“In terms of the overall game, we played not bad in spells of the game but at the end of the day, it’s about the result, it’s a cup game, it’s about getting through to the next round.”

Alloa looked dangerous during large spells of the match and came agonisingly close to scoring on several occasions.

Morgyn Neill had a headed effort that looped over the goalkeeper cleared away on the goal line by Rangers B.

Brad Rodden came into the squad for yesterday’s game, with his pace proving troublesome for the Rangers B back line.

He had several chances come his way, proving himself as a certified threat going forward, topping off his performance with Alloa's equaliser.

Connolly added: “I don’t think there are ever any real positives when you’ve had a result like 4-1 but there were spells in the game where we had a lot of the ball and we didn’t take our chances.

“We had good chances in the first half to take the lead and didn’t take them. We need to make sure we get a reaction from them against Edinburgh on Saturday.”

Alloa next play Edinburgh City at the Recs this Saturday, with both teams looking to get a result.

Edinburgh have really struggled in the league this season, winless in their first seven fixtures, with their only point coming from a draw against Cove Rangers last weekend.

“Straight back into the league,” Connolly continued. “We’ll hopefully have a few boys back that were rested tonight who were carrying some knocks.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a few fresh faces back for Saturday and get ready to go again.

“We had a few boys that we didn’t want to risk if they were carrying knocks.

“We put out a strong team, there’s no real excuses. Rangers played well and they got a goal early on.

“Some of their lads have got good pace, good energy and they deserved to win the game.

“We just need to look towards Saturday and make sure we get a reaction going forward. The goals that we conceded are really cheap.

“We need to be making the right decision with the chances that we had but we’ll be ready to go again on Saturday.”