League One is shaping up to be a "brilliant" division and Alloa are relishing taking on one of its favourites.
That's the message from boss, Andy Graham, as he prepares to take his side to Hamilton Academical on Saturday.
The Wasps, who were agonisingly beaten in last season's Championship play-off final by Stenhousemuir, began their latest bid for promotion with a stalemate at home to East Fife.
Despite picking up one point instead of three, Graham was happy with his team's performance, after a Premier Sports Cup campaign that saw them exit at the group stage.
Defeats at Edinburgh City and Ayr United, either side of draws with Stranraer and, impressively, Falkirk, saw them fail to repeat last season's feat of reaching the second round of the competition.
That, though, has not diluted optimism at the Indodrill Stadium, with Graham relishing Saturday's clash with an Accies side that romped to a thumping 5-0 win at Montrose in their League One opener.
"You'll never get anything else from me, other than optimism," Graham said.
"The League Cup was disappointing, absolutely. We didn't really get the lads in on time, that we wanted to get in, and, ultimately, we let ourselves down.
"In the Edinburgh City and the Stranraer games in particular, we didn't play as well as we should've. The Falkirk game, we were very good, and I actually thought the performance at Ayr, although it was 4-1, was probably the harshest scoreline of them all.
"We defended poorly in the first half but, I thought in the second half, we were actually very good.
"My job is to take the emotion out of it. Not completely take the scoreline out of it, because you're there to win games of football, but you have to look at what you see and trust your eyes that, for example, Saturday was a positive performance.
"Even though we've drawn the game, and the frustration is there, and I'm as frustrated as anybody, you have to be able to take that step back and go, yes, I understand that, but if you perform like that again, then you'll win.
"There's always optimism, and it's going to be a brilliant league.
"I want to be really excited about it. Already, Saturday, we're going to Hamilton, who've won 5-0 up at Montrose. What a result that is. Bring it on.
"We'll be ready to go on Saturday, and we'll be going there and trying to get three points, as we do every single game that we play."
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