Albion Rovers boss Sandy Clark has told his side to step up to their ‘favourites’ tag against Shotts on Saturday, and avoid a repeat of their Scottish Cup exit.
Rovers travel to Hannah Park to face West of Scotland Premier Division side Shotts in the South Challenge Cup third round, two weeks after losing at home to Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup first round.
And Clark knows they will need to be at their best to progress in the competition.
He said: “We’re going to be favourites in the game.
“It’s a cup game, we know what that’s like. We got turned over by Auchinleck because they were more ready for that kind of performance – battling, bullying, fighting and scratching, so we know we’re going to get the same situation at Shotts.
“We have to show we’ve learned from the Auchinleck game, go and try really hard to get to the next round.
“The level of football that we’re playing at, banana skins happen all the time, so we’re not going to take anything for granted.
“We’ll be well prepared for it and we know what we will be up against.”
Rovers drew 1-1 against nine-man Cumbernauld Colts, who had goalkeeper Yan Gromov Godik sent off in 34 minutes, and Sean Borland in 76.
Clark said: “It’s two points dropped. They had more than half the game with 10 men and the last 15 minutes with nine, so it’s up to us to make sure we got a goal and all three points.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport onX via@LanLiveSport, like us onFacebookor find us onInstagramfor the latest sports news, pictures and video.