ALLOA boss Peter Grant says Cove Rangers deserved to win on Saturday and says his side were lucky to still be in the game in the dying minutes.

Despite taking the lead twice, Alloa were beaten 3-2 thanks to a late free-kick by Ryan Strachan.

Asked if he was disappointed to lose a goal so late, Grant said: "We were fortunate still to be in the game at that particular time.

"I felt [their] second goal is disappointing because we're pressing the goalkeeper and we let him out cheaply and I think that probably summed up the way we played.

"No argument, Cove thoroughly deserved to win the tie – even if we had won the game 2-1, I'd have thought we'd got out of jail, so no qualms about that."

Grant continued: "We don't have many bad days, some days we'll have bad results but we don't have many bad days performance-wise, probably two or three this season which is more than usual for them to be perfectly honest.

"We looked disjointed and I just felt there was no shape, there was no real aggression to our play, our passing was sloppy, really poor at times.

"We had chances to keep the ball and we kept forcing it and I'm thinking it's absolutely incredible because it's things we do constantly on the training pitch.

"It's not about us, it's about Cove, they thoroughly deserved their victory and good luck to them in the next round."

Alan Trouten started the game on his return from injury and scored the opener; however, he was substituted at half-time.

Grant said: "We've had a few guys carrying injuries and it was an opportunity to try and get some minutes into their legs. That sort of backfired a bit.

"Unfortunately, at half-time he didn't feel that great and that's a concern for us, but it is what it is.

"I'm like an old record: we've got guys playing, but not training. Hopefully, we're getting closer to having a group of them fit again, but that's no excuse for what happened [against Cove].

"Trouten, yes, it's disappointing that he had to come off, but the biggest disappointment is the performance and the result."