ALLOA boss Peter Grant says new signing Kevin O’Hara can be the man to fire the Wasps to glory this season.

The new manager moved swiftly to bring the former Falkirk striker to the Indodrill Stadium – snatching him from under the noses of full-time clubs.

And the Wasps boss reckons the Wee County is the right place for the youngster to kick-start his career.

Grant told Advertiser Sport: “I’m delighted with Kevin. He’s a boy I’ve known for a long time and he played with my son at Falkirk. He did really well there but went off the radar for a little bit.

“As soon as I got the job and knew the players that were here, I thought we needed something a little bit different and Kevin can give us that. I want to look at him as a striker – I think that’s his position.

“A lot of people have played him wide just because he is quick but I want to play him as a striker and I want him to get his mojo back. I want him to score goals because I know he is capable of that. If he is successful, Alloa can be successful and that’s why he’s here.

“It’s a great challenge for him and he deserves a lot of credit because it’s the first time he’s gone part-time. He had an opportunity to stay full-time but he chose to come to us. I think that shows what his thoughts were when he came in and saw the boys.

“Now it’s time for him to push on and show the player I know he can be.”

O’Hara made his first start last Saturday in the league cup defeat to Hibernian, a collective performance which pleased the manager despite an eventual defeat to a side harbouring ambitions of a successful Premiership season.

Grant said: “I was delighted with the players. At times we were a wee bit shaky which you can understand.

“I’ve had a Thursday night training session and it’s difficult to fix everything at once, but Jim had left the boys in good stead and it’s just about trying to get that balance right. There are wee tweaks here and there which I would like to make but you need to do that slowly because it’s a hell of a lot to do in one training session.

“We tried to find our feet in the first 15 or 20 minutes and after that I was really pleased with the players. I was disappointed with the goals we lost. We have to work hard for every goal we score but the opposition are scoring goals I think we could eradicate if we take care.

“There were a couple of times we went back when we could have gone forward. We have got good players and we have got to trust them to play that way.

“We have got to defend as a group better at times but overall I was really happy with the performance. We will not play against that quality every week.”

Grant admitted his squad is still light and says adding to his squad is a priority ahead of the Wasps’ second successive Championship campaign.

He added: “We have to make sure we are ready for the league. We picked up a couple of injuries which isn’t great but we will take a look at that this week and hopefully we will be able to add some bodies before the league starts.

“There are some areas where we are weak and if we got an injury we would be really struggling. That’s something we have to be careful of. We have not got the finances to have a massive squad so we have to make sure we are bringing in the right players.

“I am well aware of the players who are out there but I have got to give the players who are already here their opportunity. I’m not going to bring in anyone if I don’t think they’re better than what we already have or don’t offer something different.

“One thing I knew as soon as I started working with the players was I had a gang of footballers who are all determined to fight for each other. They are all talented with a ball at their feet.

“They want to play the game in the right manner but the bottom line is we all want to win football matches. We don’t want to be nice and pretty if it means we lose every game we play – we want to have a cutting edge and I think we can be better at that.

“There’s a lot to work with but for effort and commitment, I couldn’t ask for a better group of boys.”