ALAN TROUTEN'S reign as king of East End Park continues as the Wasps forward claimed his fifth goal in his last three visits to Dunfermline.

Last season's outright top goalscorer picked up right where he left off to lead the Wasps into the last-16 of the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup.

Alloa were far from their fluid best but got the job done to set up the chance to venture to far off lands such as Wrexham, Waterford, and...Maryhill.

Trouten stole the headlines when he curled home a second-half effort via the aid of Cammy Gill’s post, but in a week where Andy Stirling’s time in the Wee County came to an end, it seemed Robert Thomson – Jim Goodwin’s other headline summer signing – was on a mission to avoid the same fate of his fallen comrade.

The former Morton man was given the role of spearheading Alloa’s advances into enemy territory and fittingly was involved in the best of the visitors’ attacking play. Long before his equaliser, he was a thorn in the Pars’ side and was duly rewarded.

It was a game which took some time to come to life, however, instead playing out just as you would expect the early rounds of a competition named after confectionery to. Both sides seemed content on stroking the ball from back-to-middle without ever threatening the front.

A Tom Lang glancing header past Neil Parry’s post and later a long range effort from Matty Todd, comfortably collected by the stopper, was all there was to excite the sparse East End Park crowd.

That was until the game sprung to life in a helter-skelter ten minutes which saw the hosts take the lead; and disappointingly it all came from Alloa’s finest move of the half.

Thomson was at the heart of things when he twisted beyond Lewis Martin before Trouten’s effort was pushed over by Gill to force a corner.

Inexplicably, Alloa were behind less than a minute later. Tom Beadling nipped in before Iain Flannigan to pick up a loose ball from the set-piece and only moments later Greg Kiltie had slotted the ball beyond Parry at the other end.

Beadling stung the palms of Chris Henry – who replaced the injured Parry – and Liam Dick popped up to clear seconds before Kyle Turner nearly made it two as Dunfermline tried to turn the screw.

But Alloa steadied the Fife storm when Thomson ghosted in at the back post to nod home a deserved equaliser after Liam Dick’s rasping drive was spilled by Gill into the danger zone.

It was the 26-year-old’s first goal for the Wasps since a December 2012 effort at Stranraer and no-one could begrudge him the joy.

Joy which shortly peaked when Alloa turned the game on its head midway through the second half. The Wasps came out of the break on top, moving the ball around in the sunshine in style, and were well worth their winner when it came.

Kevin Cawley and Jon Robertson exchanged passes to send the latter down the right. He pulled the ball back and a nick off a man in black was enough to bamboozle Tom Lang and Lee Ashcroft. But not Trouten, who strode forward with menace and found the bottom corner.

An audacious Thomson overhead kick aside, Peter Grant would have reasonably expected a Dunfermline onslaught to follow but the Pars’ hopes were dashed at every attempt as they found it increasingly difficult to to break down the white wall protecting Henry’s goal.

Even Trouten was in on the defensive act as he put the final nail in the hosts’ coffin by throwing himself bravely in front of Andy Ryan’s goalbound effort to save the day.

The only regret? In a week where Stirling was released, Blair Malcolm and Neil Parry both left the pitch through injury. Suddenly, Alloa’s threadbare squad is looking all the more squeezed.

ALLOA: Parry (Henry, 31), Robertson, Taggart, Dick, Graham, Hetherington, Cawley, Flannigan, O'Hara (Malcolm, 80), Trouten, Thomson (Buchanan, 62). UNUSED SUBS: Brown, Gilhooley, O'Donnelly, Gillespie.