ANDY GRAHAM has challenged his Alloa Athletic stars to "go and improve" on last season as they prepare to kick off their League One campaign.

The Wasps entertain Queen of the South in their opening fixture on Saturday, with their boss predicting a "really tough" season ahead.

He was, however, buoyed by their showing in the Premier Sports Cup. The Wasps finished second in Group F, missing out the last 16 after a 2-1 defeat at Greenock Morton on Saturday.

Owen Moffat's stunning long-range first half strike, and Michael Garrity's effort just shy of the hour mark, handed the hosts all three points at Cappielow despite Conor Sammon pulling one back for Alloa with 20 minutes to go.

Their only loss in the section saw them pipped for top spot by St Johnstone, who were beaten at the Indodrill Stadium last Tuesday.

Despite missing out on one of the best-placed runners-up spots, Graham was pleased they had improved on last season's showing when they came bottom of their group.

Last term, they finished third in League One, losing to Hamilton Academical in the Championship play-off semi-final, and Graham told Alloa Athletic TV: "It's going to be a really tough league campaign.

"I speak to the players about it all the time. All you can do is look to improve. We did that in the League Cup campaign. We improved on last year, now the challenge is go and improve on what we did last year in the league.

"We try and win more games, we try and score more goals, try and concede less goals, and we see where that takes us.

"That's the message to the players because I think if you start looking at bigger targets too early, I think you can end up tripping yourself up.

"We're focused on one game at a time. That's exactly how we did it last year, and it's exactly how we'll approach it this year.

"That's going to be the target for the players, is to improve on what they did last year."

Although disappointed to lose out to the 'Ton, a division above the Wasps, Graham was keen to take positives from the Premier Sports Cup, adding: "We saw against St Johnstone that we can play under pressure so there's nothing to fear going into the league campaign.

"The important thing is to take the positives from it because I think, over the group stage, we've played really, really well, East Fife probably apart. That was the one really disappointing performance but, even, they dug in and showed great character to get the bonus point.

"Overall, really pleased with the League Cup campaign, and it's now about building and taking that into the league.

"It's important when you have the bad result's your last result that you don't let that effect the group too much, and I know they won't.

"It's about building and looking forward to next week."