KENNY SHIELS believes that Alloa's synthetic pitch will hand them a vital advantage at Recreation Park this afternoon.

The Morton gaffer will look to continue his side's escape act against the Wasps, knowing that only a victory, combined with a Cowdenbeath defeat against Dundee, will be good enough to prolong their hopes of defying the drop from the Championship.

Shiels said: "There is no doubt about it that when you are playing on a synthetic surface every other week you are going to be a lot more used to it than a team who does not have one installed at their ground, as is the case with the majority of the other sides in the Championship.

"So what we have to do is make sure that the quality of our performance takes the pitch out of the equation. Unfortunately, the level of injury we are nursing will make that a big ask."

But the Ton boss has also admitted that the quality within the Wasps ranks will make his men vulnerable to a sting under the shadow of the Ochills today.

Shiels said: "Alloa have a lot of very good players like Ben Gordon and Andy Kirk who have played at the highest level. These fellows know that they have the chance to develop a career outside of the game, while also continuing to play in it, and teams like Alloa have an advantage over us in that respect.

"We will have to maintain the levels we have set ourselves in our last two games with Livingston and Dumbarton.

"But our situation is simple, we have to win and hope that Dundee do the same at Dens against Cowdenbeath."