Hearts boss Robbie Neilson slammed referee Gavin Duncan for awarding Alloa the penalty that sent his team crashing out of the Betfred Cup.
Alan Trouten’s spot-kick gave the Wasps a first ever competitive win over the capital side and meant they were in the hat for the quarter-final draw for just the second time in their history.
But Neilson was adamant the whistler got it wrong for Jamie Walker ’s challenge on Robert Thomson.
“We dominated the game, we should have won it by two or three goals at least, but we didn’t take the chances and got done at the end by a bad decision," he said.
“I didn’t think there was contact at the time, I've seen the replay and there’s none at all - you'd hope the referee would see that but it ends up being the pivotal moment in the game.
“But the most frustrating thing is we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. We dominated the play."
Manager Peter Grant half expected the pitch or referee to be the reason for their victory as far as their opponents were concerned but praised his players for succeeding without enjoying the comforts of their Hearts counterparts.
He said: “People will probably blame the pitch or referee. If they want to take it down that road we could have had two penalties the other night and he admitted that himself.
“Sometimes you have to take your medicine and get on with it.
“Some of their players will probably be on more than our squad all together maybe for the year not just a week.
“Some of the boys were working this morning, one of them until 4:30am. Going into extra time I was a bit concerned about that but they showed the desire and commitment they have along with their talent.”
