Albion Rovers captain sets sights on promotion

May 18 2011 by Colin Paterson, Airdrie & Coatbridge

Albion Rovers midfielder Ciaran Donnelly.

CIARAN DONNELLY is hoping to make noises in the Second Division after silencing Queen’s Park’s loudmouths on Saturday.

The 25-year-old Albion Rovers skipper was delighted to lead his side to the Third Division play-off final following the 3-1 aggregate victory over Queen’s Park at Cliftonhill.

But Donnelly admitted Rovers were provided with extra motivation after suffering jibes from some of the Spiders’ squad.

“We’ve only got half the job done,” he said. “We’re obviously happy to win but we’ve got a big game on Wednesday and then again on Sunday.

“Now we want to go all the way. There’s no point rubbing people’s faces in it as we’ve got a final to play now.

“I think Queen’s Park disrespected us a bit and we didn’t want to lower ourselves to that level.

“There were a few tiffs in the last game involving some of their senior players.

“We’ll just go about our business quietly and, hopefully, it pays off.”

Donnelly is geared up for the double-header against Annan and the long-serving defender highlighted the Galabank front pairing of Ian Harty and Sean O’Connor as the main danger to their Second Division dream.

“We haven’t beat Annan this season but we fancy our chances,” he added. “We haven’t beaten them this season but we’ve beaten them in the past.

“They haven’t changed much since they came into the league. Annan are a physical team with two very good strikers.

“Ian is one of the best finishers in the league and they’ve also got a decent player in Sean. They are a good side.

“We’ve just said we’re going to stick together. Other teams may have better players but no one has a better team spirit than us.”