Alloa Athletic Women suffered a 4-2 defeat to Central at Little Kerse in the SWFL Regional League Cup.

Coming off an opening-day defeat to Murieston and a victory over Carron Huskies, Alloa made a bright start and took the lead through Jenna Woods. Great work from Amy Cully down the right saw her cut the ball back for Woods, who calmly slotted home.

Central responded almost immediately, levelling the game just a minute later.

Alloa restored their advantage on 17 minutes, with Cully getting in behind the Central defence before keeping her composure to slot the ball underneath the goalkeeper.

Cully and Smith both had opportunities to extend Alloa’s lead, while Central also had a goal ruled out for offside as the visitors went into the interval 2-1 ahead.

Central came out strongly after the break, with Blair McAlpine scoring twice inside eight minutes to turn the game around and put the hosts 3-2 ahead.

Just two minutes later, Eva Rule added a fourth to give Central a two-goal cushion.

Alloa threw everything forward in the closing stages, moving to two up front in an attempt to get back into the contest, but ultimately couldn’t find a way through as Central held on for the victory.

The match also saw the first outing for Alloa’s new pink kit, sponsored by Davis Distributions.

Attention now turns to the Scottish Cup, with Alloa travelling to Ralston to face Glennifer Thistle this Sunday at 1.30pm. The Wasps booked their place in the next round with a thrilling 7-5 victory over Grampian in the previous round.

“We scored two good goals and there were plenty of positive minutes in the game, but ultimately we wanted to win, so we’re disappointed. We’ll take the lessons from it, work on the areas we need to improve and keep building.

“We’ve got a few players coming back from injury which is a positive, and now we turn our attention to the Scottish Cup this weekend and look to put things right.” — Jill Leiper