ALLOA were held to a goalless draw in their opening league game against Queen of the South.

The Wasps were coming off the back of a positive League Cup campaign and were hoping to carry that momentum into the league.

Despite having chances to score, the Doonhamers were resilient in their defence and denied the Wasps across the 90.

Alloa were bolstered by the additions of Steven Hetherington and Stefan Scougall, the pair absent from the Greenock Morton cup clash due to suspension.

The Wasps were also without the services of Morgyn Neill, who was facing a suspension carried over from his red card against Hamilton in the playoff second leg.

Scott Taggart partnered David McKay in central defence, with a competitive debut for Kane Thomson.

Early chances fell for Kevin Cawley, who hit his shot over the bar after a good delivery from Steven Buchanan.

Dave McKay then had an effort following a stramash in the Queens box, but it was well blocked by new signing Benjamin Nussint.

A nervy moment followed as PJ Morrison ran out of his area to clear a ball but was beaten by the Queens attacker, who sent the ball in before being cleared by Hetherington.

Cawley has his second big chance of the game as he got a free header from Scougall’s corner, but it was inches wide.

The Wasps came out the second half better than their opponents and had the visitors on the ropes for the first phase of the half.

Scougall latched onto a lofted ball from Rankin, but sclaffed his shot well wide – Rankin came much closer when his effort struck the bar immediately after.

Rankin continued to look dangerous going forward, with substitutes Cammy O’Donnell and Shay Nevans having shots at the death to try and win it for Alloa.

“We couldn’t [get the goal],” Graham said. “I felt that we were the team that really wanted the goal and were going for it.

“We didn’t manage to get one over the line but we hit the bar, their keeper’s made a couple of good saves and we had a few flash across.

“The second half was much more like us, especially the first 20 minutes – I thought we had them penned in for a bit and created good chances.

“They had a few in the first half to be fair to them but I thought they were from mistakes that I don’t expect us to make.

“Fair play to them, they’ve got a lot of pace and power up front and they showed that in the first half and I thought second half, we managed that a lot better.

“Over the second half performance, we could have merited the three points but overall, I’m delighted with the way the boys have played, their effort and the fact they kept going to try and get that elusive goal.

“But if you can’t win, the important thing is not to lose.”

Despite being unable to find the all-important goal, a particular source of pride for the boss was the clean sheet.

A debut for Kane Thomson saw the youngster look lively, his pace causing trouble for Queens’ back line.

Meanwhile, Taggart put in a solid showing at central defence in the absence of both Neill and the injured David Devine.

Graham added:“Taggs is excellent there and I thought Kane did well at right back – people will say makeshift but it’s not makeshift to me.

“I’m confident playing every single one of them so that doesn’t bother me one bit.

“No surprise keeping a clean sheet and I thought they did well especially second half when they got to grips with it for a bit and they were better.”

Alloa next make the trip to Dumbarton to take on the playoff winning side, who were promoted from League Two in May.

The Sons drew with recently relegated Inverness in their league opener and were also faced with a red card after ex Wasp Mouhamed Niang was sent off.