PETER Grant believes his men have to defend better as a team to stop the winless streak they’re on.

Alloa are yet to win in 2021 and were defeated 4-1 away to Ayr United on Saturday.

That result, alongside Arbroath winning, means the Wasps now sit at the bottom of the Championship.

Looking back to the weekend’s match, Grant said: “You can’t let players inside when they’re on their weaker foot. People accept responsibility for that but it happens too often.

“All the hard work you put it, you have to be diligent. You have to be ruthless defending your own box, I don’t mean defenders, I mean everybody. There’s no use hiding. At this moment in time we’re not defending well enough.”

Despite the result, Grant couldn’t help but praise Alan Trouten’s goal from the half-way line..

He said: “It’s a terrific goal. He’s alert to it, I’m looking at it, watching the game. I’m thinking ‘Trouts, get up the park’. Then all of a sudden you see, he’s realised the goalkeeper’s off his line.

“It’s alright seeing it, it’s being able to execute it. He done that fantastically well, it’s a top, top class goal. It’s just a pity a victory didn’t go along with it.”

With Alloa at the bottom, Grant insists “it means nothing” and he’s nowhere near worried.

“I can never ask them any more for their commitment,” he continued. “I work with them consistently. Their effort and commitment I’ve never questioned.

"They give everything they’ve got. I know, I’ve said it many times: we’re capable of getting beat by anybody but we’re capable of beating anybody. We’ve proven that this season.

“It’s a consistent thing this year, the goals we’ve conceded have been very poor, let’s not get away from that.

“The bottom line is we’re not defending properly. Every game we know we’ve got to fight for 94, 95 minutes, however long the game lasts. That’s what we’ve got to do, and to the very last kick of this season it will be the exact same."

February has shaped up to be a huge month for the club, with home games against Queen of the South and Arbroath either side of a midweek trip to Inverness to begin with.

Asked if he’ll be looking for three points on Saturday against Queen of the South, Grant answers emphatically.

“Always. Always,” he says. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we go to Tynecastle to win, Dunfermline to win, Dundee to win. We play at home and we play to win. That will never change.”