ALLOA Athletic captain Andy Graham will draw on the heartbreak of the Wasps’ play-off final defeat against Brechin last season as they aim to complete a sensational turnaround against Dumbarton this afternoon.

The Clackmannanshire club were within a penalty shootout of a return to the Championship at Glebe Park following a breathless 4-4 draw on aggregate, only for Iain Flannigan to miss in sudden death to allow James Dale to send City up instead.

Graham admits it was arguably the toughest afternoon of his 15-year career in the game and is determined never to endure that pain again.

Indeed, seven of Alloa’s likely starting line-up at The Rock were in the side that fell just short 12 months ago – and it is a driving force in the dressing room.

“That result probably took longer to get over than most other defeats I’ve suffered,” said Graham. “It was such a tough one to take, but you need to use it to drive you on. You live and learn.

“There are a good few boys in that dressing room who were part of that and every single one of us remember how sore it was.

"It is something we have spoken about; that desire to get over the line this time.

“We all saw the celebrations of the Brechin boys, and fair play to them for what they achieved, and you say ‘that’s what we want’. Hopefully, come Sunday night, we’ve got that feeling.”

Peterhead manager Jim McInally, meanwhile, will delay naming his line-up to face Stenhousemuir until the last minute to give three defenders and star striker Rory McAllister the best possible chance to prove their fitness.

The Blue Toon are 2-0 down to the visiting Warriors and McInally knows that his side’s chances of over-turning the deficit will be boosted if he can get Mason Robertson, David McCracken, Jason Brown and McAllister on the pitch.

McInally said: “I have a good idea of what we will do if Rory does not make it and what our shape will be middle to front. We thought that he had pulled a hamstring in Wednesday’s first leg, however he called me on Friday to say that he could touch his toes so it was not that bad.”

“He will want to play as that is the kind of character he is but he won’t be involved if he is not right.”

“However I have no idea what our defence will be and I will not know until about one o’clock. We could end up with our striker Russell McLean back there again but who would play alongside him is not known yet.”

Whatever team McInally is able to send out will be told to be cautious as opposed to care-free in their approach to pegging back Stenhousemuir back as McInally explained: “The first leg was a nervy affair and we were really low afterwards. You could react to that by winding everyone up and sending them out on a cavalry charge however we need to treat this like a winnable game and then see what happens.”

Stenhousemuir manager Brown Ferguson will stick with the tactics that has brought his side success over Peterhead in the last two seasons as opposed to sending his players out with a defensive game plan.

The Warriors have seen off the Blue Toon in seven of their last nine games with Ferguson saying: “We have been successful against Peterhead by playing in a certain manner and we are not going to change from that. It is too late in the season to adjust things anyway.”

“We are fully expecting them to go for it from the first whistle and everyone needs to be ready for that. We have to deal with their attacking threat and look to hit them on the break if we are under pressure.”

Ferguson added: “I was more than happy with how we performed in the first game and we will look to replicate that performance.”

Player/coach Colin McMenamin remains out due to a broken arm.