Barry Ferguson was proud of Alloa’s performance against Celtic - but challenged his players to take that into their League One campaign.
The Wasps boss reckons they had Ange Postecoglou ’s side on the rack towards the end of yesterday’s 2-1 Scottish Cup defeat.
After going two goals down in the first half, Conor Sammon pulled one back for Ferguson’s men who then pushed for an equaliser.
The former Rangers and Scotland skipper says Liel Abada’s wonder strike just before the break was a killer blow for Alloa but praised his players for sticking to his game plan.
Now, he wants to see a repeat when they return to League One duty next week.
Ferguson said: “I think we had them under the cosh a wee bit.
“I had a game plan to go in and play really deep and try to frustrate them for 70-75 minutes.
“If we opened up against a team of Celtic’s quality, it could have been five or six.
“But in the last 15 minutes we opened up a wee bit and started pressing high.
“We obviously got the goal and in the last 10 minutes I was thinking to myself we might have a chance of extra-time.
“I’m proud of how the boys worked, I thought their effort was different class.”
“They hit us with the sucker punch just before half-time.
“We just needed that wee slice of luck.
“They had a lot of possession, but I’m thinking before half-time that at 1-0 I can get them in and maybe change it up a bit.
“Then Abada scored, it was a wonder strike and I was right behind it. He couldn’t have hit it any better.
“But fair play to the boys. I thought they went back out and stuck to what I asked of them, we got the goal and we pressed them.
“Near the end, we had some other half chances that we never took.
“That needs to be a spark for us now because the league form hasn’t been good enough.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it.
“t’s not been good enough and we need to start winning games.
“The last couple of weeks have been better, but it’s nowhere near where we need to be.”
