ANDY GRAHAM witnessed plenty of positives to take from Alloa’s performance despite exiting the Scottish Cup after a 3-1 loss to Motherwell.

The Wasps visited Fir Park on the back of an impressive six game unbeaten run, whereas Motherwell had only one win in their last 17 games.

Blair Spittal fired the Steelmen in front inside one minute as Celtic loanee Adam Montgomery played the ball in towards Spittal, who’s shot ricochets off the crossbar and bounces over the line.

Alloa grew into the game very quickly after, refusing to let the hosts’ early goal phase them. Their efforts were well rewarded, as Cammy O’Donnell clears the ball away from goal towards Conor Sammon who heads over to Taylor Steven. Steven returned the favour and plays in Sammon who remains cool and composed to equalise against his old club as the half drew to a close.

“First half was really pleasing,” Graham said. “The most pleasing thing for me was that when we lost a goal to a Premiership team inside a minute and a half, the response to that was brilliant.

“We spoke about that last week, I felt at Queens when we lost a goal, we went a bit shaky for about 10 minutes whereas today the response was brilliant.

“For the rest of that half, I thought we really grew into the game and when we equalised, I felt we really deserved that at that time.

“I thought we were well in the game at that point. At half time, you heard the crowd weren’t happy and that’s exactly what we’d set up to do – was come here and do that but also with a view to win the game. The boys believed that they could.”

Motherwell came out the break much better and their quality began to shine through against Alloa.

The hosts regained their lead through Georgie Gent on the hour-mark. Motherwell were awarded a penalty after Taggart was deemed to have been too strong in reclaiming the ball from Gent.

However, when it looked like Motherwell had the chance to kill off the game, PJ Morrison produced a brilliant save to deny Spittal from the spot, following it up with another impressive block to stop the rebound.

Despite the Wasps’ best efforts, Spittal got his brace to put the game to bed with a sublime free-kick, ending Alloa’s Scottish Cup run.

“Fair play to Motherwell,” Graham continued. “I thought they were better second half and their quality showed in the end but I’ve got to be delighted with the players’ work rate and effort because that was there from the first minute to the 90th minute.

“The most disappointing thing for me is I feel the goals we lose a preventable, it’s not like Motherwell have cut us open.

“Don’t get me wrong, Blair’s free kick is excellent, I just mean in the lead up to the free kick.

“Before the second goal, it was very even, there wasn’t much in it, they didn’t create many chances and when you come to a Premiership team, you expect them to do that.

“When the goal went in, that killed the momentum a bit and took the wind out of our sails a wee bit.

“It gave Motherwell a lift, the crowd got a lift and their quality showed through at that point, they could see we were tiring a little bit.

“They did that very well and they tired the boys out. We didn’t have our troubles to seek in terms of injuries but you’ve got to take the positives about.

“That’s what I’ve been banging on about since I came into the job, it’s about looking at what we did well and how we can take that into next week.

“Really pleased with the boys’ performance and it’s now all about us taking that into the League next week.”

Alloa now look ahead to hosting Falkirk at the Recs, who remain unbeaten at the top of League 1. Their Scottish Cup run came to an end on Saturday as well, losing 2-1 to League 2 side Bonnyrigg Rose.

Meanwhile, in the League, they last drew 2-2 with Edinburgh City, with a last-minute penalty saving the Bairns from defeat.