ALLOA star Steven Hetherington celebrated his fiftieth game for the club during last week's victory over East Fife and says he is delighted to have reached the milestone.

Both the midfielder and team-mate Craig McDowall celebrated a half-century of games for the Wasps in style, Hetherington putting in a man-of-the-match display as his side ran out 3-0 winners.

But he hinted at his frustration at the length of time it has taken him to reach the landmark, an injury earlier this season robbing him of several months of football.

Hetherington told Advertiser Sport: "Fifty games is a good milestone to hit. It was a bit of a long time coming, given that I was injured for a while during the first half of the season, but it is something to celebrate.

"Even at the top level, players are moving on more quickly now so it's rarer for someone to reach an important milestone.

"There are a lot of players here who have been here for a long time and I think that is testament to how good it is here and how well we are treated by the club."

Hetherington has played a key role since his return to the side and shone once again as Alloa saw off the playoff-chasing Fifers, but he insisted that it was the team's display as a whole which sealed their victory.

He said: "The result is the most important thing but it was a great team performance. The goals we scored were well-worked.

"We started a bit slowly and they put a bit of pressure on us early on, and even after we scored we had to weather the storm a little bit.

"But you are never going to dominate a game from start to finish. There are going to be periods where the opposition are coming at you. When that happens it's all about how you defend and I think we did that brilliantly."

The Wasps have now won three games in a row and have closed the gap to league leaders Livingston, but Hetherington says the squad are only focused on Saturday's trip to Brechin.

He added: "We are starting to build up a head of steam now and it is nice to be winning games but we can't get too carried away.

"There is still a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season. It's an old cliché but we have to just focus on the next game.

"You can never look too far ahead. Brechin is a tough place to go but if we focus in training and get our game plan right, I am confident we will get the result."