DRIVE across the Clackmannanshire Bridge.

Take a left at the end and keep going, past Recreation Park - sorry, the Indodrill Stadium - beyond the train station and town hall, through the town centre and its proliferation of roundabouts. Take a left and head into the industrial estate, past warehouses, factories and large, imposing lumps of industrial machinery. Take a right and continue along a narrow road, the buildings thinning out, greenery on one side, some new-build houses. Have you gone too far? The road winds on, however, and eventually you find it. The single-story brick building, the car park surrounding it, and there, the Porsche with the MUL 1 registration plate parked outside. You have reached your destination.

The car and the building belong to Mike Mulraney. This is the modest head office of his Mulraney Group, a successful conglomerate that employs around 500 people in operations as diverse as drilling, property, leisure and hospitality. Also on their portfolio is Alloa Athletic, on whose board Mulraney sits as chairman. On Sunday they will compete with Livingston in the Petrofac Training Cup final, looking to win a cup for only the second time in their history.

"The football club is the smallest part of the business but is probably also the thing that takes up most time," reveals Mulraney, inside a shared office filled with paperwork, maps and other business paraphernalia. He says it with a fond smile, the way someone would speak about a troublesome but much-loved family pet. He is wearing cufflinks shaped like a wasp, a nod to the club's nickname as well as his company's leisure group.

Mulraney, 46, is the local boy made good. Born and raised in the area, his company is one of the biggest employers in Alloa, with many of the buildings in the street leading up to the head office also bearing the Mulraney brand. He became a fan of the local football club in that capricious way that many supporters do - a friend's grandfather took him to a match and it stuck with him - and became involved in the running of the club just under a decade ago. Now the Mulraney Group controls 90 percent of Alloa, with Mulraney, who also sits on the SPFL board, very much the public face of that stewardship.

"People always stop me in the street, every day, and want to chat," he adds. "And as the chairman it's important to make time for that. It's their club and it's good to get feedback on how you are running it. It can have its downsides if you're in a hurry! But there is a responsibility that comes with being chairman. If you don't want that, don't take on the job or don't live in the town where the club is located."

Alloa as a club have tended historically to flit between the second and bottom divisions of Scottish football, spending most of the recent years in the third tier. The imaginative appointment of Paul Hartley as manager in 2011 led to back-to-back promotions into what is now known as the SPFL Championship. Should they avoid relegation this season - they are one point ahead of the play-off place with five games remaining - it would represent the longest the club has spent consecutively at that level. A progressive, ambitious approach has served them well so far.

"If you're Alloa Athletic and you operate by doing the exact same as everyone else, then those with more resources will probably beat you more often than not," adds Mulraney. "So we want to do things differently because, if we don't, it follows that we won't be particularly successful. In the natural order of things we should be probably in the middle of the league below us and we don't want that. We want to do better than that. So we have to do things differently. We want to become established in the second tier. That's the aim."

The demise of Gretna signalled an end to the previous warmth felt towards clubs owned or ran by one wealthy, local benefactor. It is a source of some frustration and anger to Mulraney, not helped by the recent proposal by the Green Party to give supporters the first right of refusal to buy their clubs. The idea that having fans in charge will be the perfect panacea to all of football's problems does not sit comfortably with him.

"Whether it's a politician with, in my mind, an almost disgraceful lack of understanding of the subject, putting forward a motion that everyone puts their hand up for, or a zealot that just believes all things should be like that - there is no right model for football. Anyone who suggests there is one needs their heads examined. If someone comes along and says "every club should be owned by one person" or "every club should be owned by its fans" then I think "you're bonkers". There should be different fits for different clubs operating in different environments."

Mulraney is coming towards the end of the second of what he calls "three five-year plans". Alloa have taken great strides forward in that time but it has been achieved, he insists, in a sustainable way. "The first few years were all about stabilising things as it was a bit of a mess financially. It was close to catastrophic, in fact. The second five years have been about putting in the foundations for growth. And in the next phase we will hopefully improve again. But you can't do it overnight. You can try, and you might be successful for a very short period of time. So you'll burn bright and everyone will see you. But you'll probably extinguish that light pretty quickly. That's not something we want for our club."

Strengthening the bond with the local community has been important, too. "I remember when I first got involved in the club I never saw a kid walking about with an Alloa top on. They would probably have got pointed at for wearing one to PE. Now kids are asking why their pals are wearing Celtic, Rangers or Real Madrid tops and not Alloa ones. You can't walk anywhere without seeing a Wasps badge as the coaching and community programmes are massive. So, the town is now proud of its club. And the club is certainly proud of its town."