Cowdenbeath have been dragged into a relegation dogfight, manager Colin Cameron has admitted.
He had just watched his team produce their worst home performance of the Championship season and, with Morton winning, the Blue Brazil sit second bottom, only two points above the Greenock side.
In what was a ‘must win’ game against one of the part-time sides in the division, Alloa took the lead on 18 minutes with a 25-yarder from Kevin Cawley, which took a wicked deflection off home skipper John Armstrong and flew over keeper Thomas Flynn.
Then, on 32 minutes, Cawley crossed for Andy Kirk to nod home number two.
Cowden had a chance to get back in the game when Alloa keeper Scott Bain fouled Greg Stewart, but substitute Marc McKenzie had his spot-kick saved by the visitors’ number one.
The only plus for Cameron was that third bottom Queen of the South also lost and they are only a point above Cowden.
“Apart from the opening 10 minutes, when we looked pretty good and created a few chances, that was an awful performance,” he said.
“Marc McKenzie’s introduction to the midfield at half-time helped us improve a little after the break but our work in the last third of the pitch was not good and too often we took the wrong option and our delivery into the box was poor.”
He added: “We are in a real relegation dogfight but the players know that they can do better than that and I will be looking for a big response from them next weekend when we play leaders Hamilton Accies at home.”
Alloa striker Andy Kirk, who grabbed the key second goal, said it was a very important game for his colleagues after back-to-back defeats.
“We needed a result and came up with a very good performance away from home,” he said. “We were pretty comfortable in the first half but Scott’s penalty save after the break was a highly important moment in the game and we responded to that by defending well and hitting effectively on the break.”
Wasps boss Paul Hartley felt it was a thoroughly deserved three points. He confirmed that he has former Hibs striker Derek Riordan training with the club at the moment and is going to have a close look at him over the next week.