ALLOA new boy Craig Howie said the decision to join the club was an easy one despite not knowing who the manager would be.

Howie’s move to the club was announced last month before new manager Barry Ferguson’s appointment was confirmed.

However, Howie said the words from Alloa players past and present made the choice to join the Wasps an easy one.

Speaking to Advertiser Sport, Howie said: “I know quite a lot of boys that have played with Alloa and they’ve always really bigged up the club.

“Andy Graham is close to those boys and he’s kept an eye on me throughout my career so far because he’s quite close to Graham Holmes.

“He’s always had an eye on me; seen I’d done quite well at Clyde, and when the opportunity came up after my contract was up, it was more him who put the feels out. That’s where it initially started.

“It was all a bit strange considering there was no manager at the time, but the club were still looking for players, obviously looking to build for this year. It was a strange scenario but the chairman and Andy made contact.”

Howie continued: “I was weighing up the pros and cons and there wasn’t really any cons, I know the philosophy that Alloa have.

“No matter who’s coming in the door, they’ll want to play good football and their ambition is to go straight back up so I didn’t really make much of a difference in my decision-making.

“As soon as I knew Alloa were interested, and I had another few options which were good options but I think no matter what I was pretty set on Alloa.”

After joining the club with no manager in place, Howie was delighted when Ferguson was confirmed.

“Absolutely ecstatic with the announcement,” he continued. “I’ve played against his teams before when he was at Kelty Hearts and I was at East Kilbride, when I spoke to him he mentioned he’s always been a fan of me and he actually tried to sign me when he was at Kelty.

“I’m really happy with the appointment with everything he’s done in the game and I know how ambitious he is. He is very demanding which is what you need if you want to go winning leagues and his training is supposed to be top close so I’m buzzing with the appointment.”

Ferguson didn’t hesitate at his unveiling when he said he was aiming to win the league, not just finish in a play-off position, and Howie said that mindset is perfect for him.

He continued: “The thing is with Alloa being in the Championship for the past number of years, the ambition is to go straight back up. The players that are there – that’s another reason why I signed on – there’s a core group of 10 plus players who had signed up again next season and that group should be at the top of the table or thereabouts.

“It’s not going to be easy, there’s a lot of full-time teams, there’s no hiding it will be a difficult league. But the ambitions that the club’s got, the manager’s got and the players have, we should be up there looking to win the league.”

Despite the relegation last season, Alloa were applauded for their positive style of football and with Ferguson keen to keep that style going, Howie said it’ll fit right into his game play.

“Probably my best attribute is my composure at the back,” he said. “As much as there’s no getting away from the fact it’ll be a very competitive league and you have to win your tackles, win your headers, enjoying playing football is the main thing for me and I can do that by getting on the ball and passing it.

“It’s another one of the appealing factors to Alloa was no matter who they were going to be bringing in, they were going to try and play the right way which is massive for me.”