SCOTT TAGGART rescued a point for Alloa in tough conditions as they drew 3-3 with Dumbarton.

The Wasps headed to the Rock in search of their first win of the league campaign, with Miko Virtanen coming in for the injured Kurtis Roberts.

Alloa got off to a bad start as Steven Hetherington played a short pass back towards PJ Morrison, which was scooped up by Michael Ruth and slotted past Alloa’s keeper.

It didn’t take long for Alloa to respond, however, as Luke Donnelly drew the Wasps level with an audacious flick over Dumbarton’s Brett Long.

Kane Thomson sent in his cross, which is met by Kevin Cawley and headed towards Alloa’s number 9, a cheeky bit of skill equalising for Alloa.

Dumbarton almost had another as Hetherington uncharacteristically gave the ball away again, but indecision cost the Sons and PJ was able to smother the chance.

The hosts appealed for as penalty as Matthew Sheils went down in the box after being marshalled by Steven Buchanan, but their shouts fell on deaf ears.

Donnelly would go on to truly stand out during the first half, a well taken touch laying the ball on a plate for Cawley to smash home, giving Alloa the lead inside half an hour.

“We need to get that out of LD more,” Andy Graham said. “I thought he was excellent today.

“We played him that little bit higher up to try and link up with Luke Rankin and I thought his link up play was excellent.

“His first goal was outstanding, I think he’s the only player on the pitch who’d even think to do that.

“The second goal was really well worked, we make a few passes, we get it forward and it’s a great touch by LD and a great run by Kev and a great finish.

“The standard and quality of the goals were excellent.”

Further chances fell for Rankin, Buchanan and McKay in the first half before the break, Alloa the better side and ahead.

The conditions worsened for the second 45, making the ball highly unpredictable in the air.

Corners and goal kicks became a lottery as Alloa struggled to get the ball down and play the way they’d like.

The strong wind galvanised Dumbarton, however, with the hosts earning their equaliser through James Hilton.

Alloa made a couple changes, bringing on Cammy O’Donnell and Conor Sammon on to help cope with the wind.

Ruth scored his second of the game to give Dumbarton a deserved lead after Alloa fell out of the match in the second half.

Alloa’s subs began to help change the game, Sammon helping to control the ball in the air and O’Donnell’s proficiency from dead balls testing Dumbarton.

O’Donnell would have a good free kick saved by Long – but after this, Alloa really got going, building on that chance to put Dumbarton under pressure.

“That’s one thing I can never fault this group for,” Graham continued. “It’s how they react to diversity. They make a bad mistake early on, we don’t let that affect us, we go 2-1 up.

“They’re really good at responding to things happening and when we went 3-2 down, that’s when we started to play again.

“We created a good couple chances, looked a threat again and we deserved the equaliser – overall, a draw was a fair result and a reflection of the game.”

Alloa got their reward as Taggart stepped up from range and fired in a bullet effort to draw the game level again.

In the end, a point was perhaps a fair result over the piece, both sides having strong periods and chances to score.

“I’ll never be happy with a point,” Graham said. “We set out to win every game and unfortunately we didn’t do that today.

“The conditions played their part but I’m disappointed in the first 20 minutes of the second half especially.

“We go in 2-1 up and we do well to come back from an early setback so we spoke about taking the wind out the equation in the second half by passing the ball.

“I didn’t feel that we did that for the first 20 minutes, Dumbarton put us under a lot of pressure but we played into their hands a bit in the way that we played.

“It took us going 3-2 down to start passing the ball about the way we know we can, we then started to look a threat again and take our chances.

“The frustration comes from that 20 minute spell, we have to manage that a bit better but credit to Dumbarton, they came out and they’ve played in these conditions.

“They came out in the second half and knew they’d have the wind at their backs and put us under a great deal of pressure so you’ve got to give them credit.

“The frustration comes from my side that I know we can pass the ball better and when we did that, we looked a real threat.”

Next up for Alloa is a visit from League Two winners Stenhousemuir, who come to the Recs on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Kelty Hearts.

Andy Graham will be looking for a sharp response to today’s game, aiming to secure the first three points of the season next Saturday.

Graham added: “Give the boys credit as well, when you go 3-2 in that wind, the easiest thing to do is lose 4-2, 5-2 and then come in and start complaining about the wind.

“They didn’t, they rolled their sleeves up, dug in and managed to get us a point out of the game.

“We build on that hopefully next week with a home game.”