STEVEN HETHERINGTON made his long-awaited return from injury during Alloa’s 5-1 demolition job of Stirling Albion.

The veteran midfielder had been out of the squad since the Scottish Cup tie against Motherwell in January, recovering from a nasty injury sustained there.

Alloa’s number 4 made his return on Saturday, replacing Quinn Coulson with 15 minutes to go.

Hetherington took to the pitch with the fans calling his name, as the midfielder helped keep Stirling quiet while Alloa ran riot at Forthbank.

With an incredibly tough set of fixtures left for Andy Graham’s men, Hetherington is set to play a vital role in proceedings, with the Wasps gaffer hailing the work rate of every substitute today.

Graham said: “Stevie’s had a full weeks training in so it’s good to get him back out onto the pitch.

“I never like to single individuals out because it is about the effort that everybody’s put in and all five of the guys that came on today contributed and that’s really important.

“[David] McKay has had to come on very early in the game unfortunately for David Devine which is a hard thing to do.

“He’s been injured, he’s had the knock as well so Dave’s not played a lot of football so to come in and play like that, I was delighted with him.

“Overall, the team performance was outstanding which is the most important thing because next week, we’re going to need that exact same quality and work rate if we’re going to get a result next week.”

The only negative for Alloa’s day at Forthbank was the substitution of David Devine, who went off with a knock early on in the game.