11/10/21

Albion Rovers Reaction | Ola & The Manager

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Striker Ola Adeyemo and manager Paul Hartley spoke to the media after we booked our place in the quarter-finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy with a 4-1 victory over Albion Rovers at Balmoral Stadium.

Ola came off the bench in the second half to help us secure the win, thanks to a double from Rory McAllister and singles from Mitch Megginson and Jamie Masson, which were all scored inside the last 11 minutes of the tie.

Former Watford and Dundee United player Ola was making his debut after joining us last month.

It was the 26-year-old’s first appearance of any sort since suffering a bad injury last year.

Ola said: “It was unbelievable to play my first game in over a year.

“I’ve worked hard to get myself back to this stage after suffering the injury.

“To finally step back on to a pitch and play was an amazing feeling.

“When I then managed to assist with one of the goals the emotions really came out of me.

“I found it difficult to control them because I had waited so long to get back to doing what I love.

“I’ve been doing extra sessions with the gaffer, working on my finishing and movement.

“He is always giving me tips about things I need to work on to improve and I appreciate him making the effort to do that.

“It has really helped me and the club has looked after me very well too, so I’m desperate to give something back.

“I would never describe being out of the side so far as frustrating.

“We have very high quality strikers at the club who have been playing well, so I knew I would have to bide my time and try to impress whenever I did get an opportunity.

“I kept working hard in training and I’m very pleased I was able to come on and make a difference.

“It’s great being at a club with strikers as good as Rory and Mitch, I will look to learn off them and keep pushing to get more games.”

Paul said: “It was a better second half from us.

“We were a bit pedestrian in the first half, we didn’t move the ball quickly enough and our final pass wasn’t that great.

“The two substitutions definitely changed the game.

“Ola was positive, bright and strong – he gave everybody a lift.

“Jamie came on, got his goal and set up another, so they can be pleased with their contributions.

“It was great to see Rory score again too, he’s on fire at the moment.

“We could have taken him out and rested him.

“But when you are playing as well as he is you want to stay in the team and breed off the confidence scoring regularly gives and that is what Rory did.

“We also gave some of the guys who hadn’t played a lot recently some minutes, which is important.

“As far as cups go, I always say you are in it to win it.

“We’ve had good draws, but made a bit of hard work of it so far.

“But we have got through again and that’s what cup games are all about – winning.”

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