GUTTED Alloa manager Barry Ferguson says that his side had Celtic 'under the cosh' as they pushed to pull off a late Scottish Cup shock.

Former Rangers hero Ferguson's side looked dead and buried as Celtic opened up a 2-0 half-time lead at the Indodrill Stadium, but a Conor Sammon goal 15 minutes from time set up a nervy ending to the game for the visitors.

It wasn't to be for Alloa in the end, but Ferguson was proud of his players for giving Celtic a scare.

"I think we had them under the cosh a wee bit," Ferguson said.

“Listen, I had a gameplan to go in and play really deep and try to frustrate them for 70-75 minutes.

“If we opened up against a team of Celtic’s quality, it could have been five or six, so we obviously respected the quality we were coming up against and the quality of players they’ve got.

“In the last 15 minutes we opened up a wee bit and started pressing high. We obviously got the goal and in the last 10 minutes I was thinking to myself we might have a chance of extra-time.

“At the end of the day I’m proud with how the boys worked, I thought their effort was different class.”

Ferguson said the game turned on a frantic end to the first half that saw Sammon squander a chance and Liel Abada score a wonder goal at the other end.

“I said to them that the way we were playing, if we go the one chance we had to be ruthless and take it," he said.

“When Conor didn’t take it they hit us with the sucker punch just before half-time, and going in at 2-0 the boys were a bit down in the dressing room.

“But I had a chat with them and told them to stick with what we spoke about on Thursday night and worked through in training. They did that.

“We changed the way we played, we got the goal back, and I thought we were on the front foot from them.

“We just needed that wee slice of luck and then you never know what could happen, but Celtic had enough to go through to the next round.”