ALLOA capped off a perfect February as they recorded their fifth win on the bounce, defeating Hamilton Accies 2-1.

The Wasps visited New Douglas Park with huge momentum behind them from an excellent win over Cove Rangers the week before.

Meanwhile, Accies came into the game on the back of two losses, looking to get back to winning ways over Alloa.

Andy Graham made three changes to the team from the previous week, the most notable being David Devine returning from a spell out injured to replace the suspended Dave McKay.

Kevin Cawley stepped in for Stefan Scougall and Ethan Sutherland started at left wing ahead of Quinn Coulson.

From the first whistle, the match proved to be a highly end to end affair, both sides having strong chances to take the lead.

However, play was paused for a considerable amount of time after a head knock between Miko Virtanen and Kyle MacDonald.

Thankfully, Virtanen was cleared to keep playing but the Accies man had to be stretchered off before play could resume.

Wasps goalkeeper PJ Morrison did well deny Rose from Accies, making himself large and blocking the shot.

Up the other end, Sutherland sent in a superb cross that met the head of Cawley, his header glancing just wide of the post for Alloa’s best chance of the half.

Virtanen was caught up in another collision towards the end of the first half and had to be replaced by Jon Robertson.

The second half was an end-to-end affair, with both sides dangerous on the counter, and PJ Morrison and Dean Lyness making some impressive stops to keep scoring level.

Scoring was eventually opened in favour of the Wasps, however, as Kurtis Roberts won the ball back, skipped around the Accies midfield and sent an outstanding long range thunder strike towards goal giving Lyness no chance.

It was a well-deserved goal for Roberts, his first competitive strike in Alloa colours, who simply dominated the midfield across the full 90 minutes.

Alloa’s jubilations, though, were paused just minutes later as former Wasp Euan Henderson came back to haunt them, heading in a good cross from Fergus Owens.

Both sides searched for a winner in the remaining half hour, and in the end it was Alloa who broke through.

A corner from Cammy O’Donnell found Conor Sammon who dinked it towards the back post for Jon Robertson to poke it in, before wheeling off in celebration.

Manager Andy Graham was delighted with the result, praising his team for seeing out moments in the game when Hamilton were on top.

“It was a really tight game,” Graham said. “Hamilton had their chances as well so it would be wrong for me to say we fully deserved to win.

“What I was delighted with was how we saw through a number of difficult periods in the game, the togetherness and quality of defending on show.

“That gave us the platform to go and win the game in the end and that’s thankfully what we’ve done. It’s a great delivery from Cammy, a great touch from Sammo and, of all people, Jon Robertson’s there at the back post to score.

“I’m delighted, but it took a big defensive performance from the whole team to give us the platform to go and win the game.”

The matchwinner for Jon Robertson was huge, not just in the context of the game, but to the player himself.

Robertson has had a tricky period at Alloa, with this appearance just his third since coming back from a lengthy injury spell which has kept him out since April last year.

Adding in the assist from Conor Sammon, this drives home Graham’s point about the substitutes coming on and instantly impacting the game.

Graham continued: “First and foremost, I hope Kyle MacDonald is okay. Miko got up and thought he was okay and he did seem fine but when he got the cut, I thought let’s be safe and sensible about it.

“We’ve got such quality sitting there [on the bench] and that was an opportunity for Robbo to come in and he did a great job.

“That’s exactly what I ask for from all the substitutes whether they’re on the bench or not even in the squad – that whenever they get their opportunity, they take it.”

Alloa have now capped off a perfect February, recording five wins on the bounce over Annan, Stirling, Annan again, Cove and now Hamilton.

The Wasps have established themselves as the team to beat in League One, amassing huge momentum as they enter March.

With a tricky trip away to Montrose next week, Alloa will need everything behind them if they hope to get a result.

“It’s now about focusing on Montrose,” Graham added. “We’ll never get ahead of ourselves.

“The second you get ahead of yourselves in football is the second you get knocked back down.

"We’ll focus on Montrose, keep the momentum going and keep the boys working hard in training, and we'll look forward to the game.”