Charlie Reilly hopes his spell at Albion Rovers can provide a springboard back to full-time football.
The midfielder joined the Cliftonhill side last summer after coming through the ranks at Hamilton Accies and spending time at Partick Thistle, making an instant impression in Coatbridge.
He scooped the club’s Goal of the Year award for 2021/22 for an audacious 25-yard free kick against his boyhood club, contributing seven goals and five assists in total to Brian Reid’s men, surviving in League Two for another year.
Still only 20, Reilly hasn’t taken up another job while at part-time level as he puts all of his energy into turning his hobby into a full-time gig.
There’s an awareness that will be difficult, but the attacking midfielder hopes he’s proven he has the ability and mettle to thrive.
He said: “It’s been good for me. The reason I came here was to get minutes under my belt and more experience of first-team football. It’s a man’s game and you are beginning to see what it’s like.
“I have had a lot of those minutes. I had an injury at the start of the season but I’ve since played a lot which is good.
"Consistency is the main thing as people start to watch you. If you do it every week, you have a chance to go and make it in the game. I am still a young boy learning and improving every day.
“It was hard going from full-time for four years to part-time but I don’t mind. I don’t work or anything, I just try and play as much football as I can.
"I could have got a job but I wanted to stay focused instead of working a 9-5 then coming to training. I want to get back to full-time football. Whether it’s here or elsewhere, I want to keep improving as a player.”
Rovers dealt with slate of injury concerns throughout the term but eventually did enough to stay up, despite ending the season with one win in five matches following a good run of form.
The promotion play-offs were an outside bet but Reilly hopes they can push on towards that frontier when the new campaign kicks off later this summer.
He added: “It’s been unlucky as a few weeks before the season ended we had a good run, but then we went downhill a bit. But overall, it has been a good season.
“That was the main thing for us (avoiding relegation). It was just annoying that wee spell came on at the end of the season.
“We got there in the end and we now look forward to next season. The title is obviously the main thing but we want to try and go for the play-offs too. That would give us a chance to go up to League One.
“That is what everybody wants. So if we can do that next year, that would be good. We were a bit unfortunate with injuries as there’s been a lot of them.”
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