ALLOA Athletic Women kicked off their pre-season with a strong win over Bayside Ladies at Pitreavie.

The Wasps made the short trip to Pitreavie last Tuesday to begin their pre-season friendlies, seeing Bayside off 2-1.

This was the first taste of football since coming back after the summer, with manager Allan Milne delighted to get minutes into the team and come away with the win.

“Good to get a win,” Milne said. “Good to get some minutes into the legs for some of the girls.

“We had some new girls in today to get them integrated and involved and used to the system and how we wanted to play so it was good to see that.

“Good to get the win and come up the road was good, we played some really good football at times.”

Alloa got off to a dream start, going 2-0 up at half time courtesy of Abbie Trotter and a goal from a new signing.

Despite the strong start, Alloa’s job was made harder after Lesley Munro was sent off for dissent after just 36 minutes.

The Wasps dug deep to keep fighting and see out the result, conceding one screamer from 40 yards, which wasn’t enough for Bayside to take anything from the game.

Milne continued: “Getting a player sent off after 36 minutes obviously wasn’t great but the players adapted and they managed to control that and contain that.

“Bayside had about one from about 40 yards out into the top corner and nobody could really do anything about it.

“Aside from that, they never really gave us anything to worry about. Only thing for us is if we get in that situation again, we need to not panic and relax.

“For the first 10 minutes, we were panicking a wee bit and didn’t know what to do but it settled down quickly.

“The fact that Bayside were a bit rough and physical, the girls stood up to that even when going down to 10 men.

“They took responsibility and they really held out to get the win and come up the road.”

Alloa followed this up with their first home friendly of the season, welcoming St Mirren women to the Recs.

Unfortunately, the team suffered a heavy 8-2 defeat to the Scottish Women’s League One side on Sunday.

The Wasps will now continue their pre-season campaign with friendlies against Stewarton, Giffnock and Huntly.