Albion Rovers star Charlie Reilly says his side benefited from the Premiership shut-down and is delighted to see more fans flocking to Cliftonhill.
The Coatbridge side got a crowd of over 400 for their 1-0 win over Stranraer, which is quite a bit more than they might have expected.
Reilly said: “With the World Cup on and the Premiership off, quite a few fans from the Coatbridge and Airdrie areas came to watch their local team, which is good.
“It’s always nice to see people coming out to watch us.”
After knocking out Glasgow Uni last month, Rovers host Lowland League side University of Stirling in the Scottish Cup third round this weekend, but Reilly dreams of a huge draw in the next stage if they can progress.
He said: “We all want to go through to the next round of the cup. You want to beat them and go into the next round – that’s when the bigger teams come in and hopefully we can get a good draw.
“You want to go as far as you can – it’s the Scottish Cup, it’s a big competition – but if it came to a big team it would be good.
“It would be a not bad crowd at Cliftonhill, and we would go for it.”
Reilly admits it wasn’t his day as Albion Rovers beat Stranraer 1-0, but says three points in League Two was the most important thing.
The 20-year-old had a penalty saved by Stranraer keeper Luke Scullion and struck a post in each half, but Callum Wilson popped up with a 59th-minute screamer to hand Rovers back-to-back wins.
Former Partick Thistle and Hamilton Accies midfielder Reilly, who has scored 11 goals for Rovers this season, said: “It was a good save, to be fair.
“The penalty has gone to the bottom right corner, he’s guessed the right way, got a hand to it and put it past the post – that happens.
“I’ve scored three penalties this season, so stuff like that happens, that’s football.
“I hit the post in the first half and in the second half, but it was just a game that wasn’t my day to score in – and three points are the main thing.
“It was a well deserved three points. It was a bit of a battle, the pitch wasn’t great, but we dug in and got the three points.
“We’re up to seventh but we could be in the top four, had we taken our chances early on in the season.
“But we’re unbeaten in six now, we’ve gone on a good wee run, and that’s two wins in two, so hopefully we can kick on.”
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