ANDY GRAHAM wants his side to go one step further than last season as they kickstarted their pre-season preparations.

The boss has set out his aims for this season in what will be his first full year in charge of the team.

Alloa got back to business on Saturday, June 15, with their first training session after the summer break.

Andy Graham led the session alongside his backroom staff, the first for Neil Parry as well since returning to the Recs as a goalkeeper coach.

“It’s really good to be back,” Graham said. “The players have shown really good fitness levels and enthusiasm.

“That’s what it’s all about, you want to enjoy coming to your football and that’s exactly what we’ve got here in this group.

“Today showed that, it’s a great start to pre-season and we will take it forward from there.”

Alloa have resumed training ahead of a busy pre-season schedule, which will see them play four friendlies before embarking on their Premier Sports Cup campaign.

Graham has organised friendlies with recently relegated Livingston, second flight mainstays Greenock Morton and newly promoted Falkirk.

The Wasps will face the three Championship sides over June and July, with Graham explaining he wanted to test his squad against teams of a high calibre.

He continued: “We’ve got the opportunity to play Livingston then Clyde in a closed doors friendly here and then Morton and Falkirk.

“That’s the standard that we’re looking for, we want to test ourselves against teams that are in a higher position than we are in the leagues.

“It’s down to the players now to showcase their talents, I know a lot of that group want to get into the Championship or as high up as they possibly can.

“There’s no better opportunity to show that than in pre-season to go show that and test yourself against as good opponents as you can.”

Graham took over from Brian Rice in November 2023, taking Alloa to a third place finish and into the playoff semi-finals.

The Wasps would exit at that stage to eventual winners Hamilton Accies and now the gaffer has called on his team to finish even stronger than they did last season.

“It’s no different than from last season when I took on the job,” he said. “I’ve said to the players that the most important thing is to improve on what you do.

“We finished third last year, all I want to do is get more points, score more goals and concede less goals and I want to win more games.

“Wherever that takes us as a club, it takes us but the aim has always got to be to improve on how we did the previous year.

“That’s exactly how our attitude and mentality is going to be, there’s no point in talking about promotion because that doesn’t happen until May.

“The most important thing is to improve on what we did last season – improving the points total, improving the goals and the goals conceded.”

Once Alloa’s pre-season is wrapped up, it’s straight into competitive fixtures in the 2024 Premier Sports Cup.

The Wasps have been drawn in a group with St Johnstone, Morton, East Fife and Brechin, with many not ruling out the possibility of making it out the group.

“It’s always going to be tough due to the seeded aspect of the cup,” Graham said. “You’ve got a Premiership team and a Championship team.

“We all know how difficult it’s going to be to get through it, but we’ll be looking to try and get through it.

“What’s the point in entering a competition if your aim isn’t to try and qualify? We’re not saying we’re going to win the groups.

“It will be difficult to qualify but we’ve done it before as a club so we’ll get through pre-season and focus on that first game.”