NEIL PARRY says last Saturday’s defeat to Airdrie marked a bad day at the office for Alloa after they went down with a whimper at the Excelsior Stadium.

A contentious first-half penalty and a late clincher meant the home side took the points, and Parry admitted that the Wasps could have lost by even more against his former club.

And the goalkeeper reckons his side have struggled to find their best form in the opening weeks of the season.

Parry told Advertser Sport: “Although it was a bad day at the office I don’t think there was actually too much in the game. The only thing separating the teams in the first half was the penalty.

"At the start of the second half we maybe went gung-ho a bit early and by the end Airdrie were back on top. In the end they were good value for the win, and they could and probably should have scored more.

“The penalty decision was awful. It was no more than two players running into each other. But that’s the way the game goes sometimes.

"We sometimes get decisions like that going our way – it’s part and parcel of the game. There wasn’t much in the game after that but we didn’t create anything of note. They kept breaking on us and created a few chances from that.

“We didn’t really test Rohan Ferguson so we’re really disappointed with that.

“I don’t think we’ve been anywhere near our best apart from in the first half against Raith. Even against Queen’s Park we were quite poor for spells. All the boys know we’ve not lived up to our own high standards yet.”

Alloa have a break from league duty on Saturday when they take on Dundee United in the Irn-Bru Cup, and Parry says the squad are determined to produce the kind of performance that has been lacking in recent weeks.

He said: “Obviously we are gutted but we can’t look back now. We have to focus on next week and make sure we bounce back. We will take it on the chin and look to put in a good performance on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a really difficult game against Dundee United. They will be big favourites but we’ll go there and look to put in a good performance. We can’t be much worse than we were in that second half against Airdrie.

“Going up there with nothing to lose can bring out the best in players. United are flying pretty high but it’s the sort of game which gives us a chance to get a poor performance out of our system. We will work hard all week and make sure we improve.”

Last Saturday’s encounter marked Parry’s 50th appearance for Alloa, and he’s hoping there are plenty more to follow over the course of this season and beyond.

He added: “I love it at Alloa and I’m obviously delighted to reach the milestone. I’ve said before that it’s the best part-time club I’ve been at – you get looked after really well here. Hopefully there’s a few more appearances to come for me.”