Annan Athletic defender dreams of League One play-off history

Annan Athletic’s Scott Hooper is dreaming of making history with the Galabankies this week.

The defender captained his side to the League One play-off final on Saturday and they now face a double header with Clyde to secure promotion.

Hooper spoke after Annan’s 0-0 draw away to Dumbarton which gave them a 6-0 aggregate win after last week’s demolition job.

He said: “The confidence is high within the group but we need to get the job done this time as that’s twice we’ve lost in the final in three years.

“I was here when we lost to Clyde in the last play-off.

“We won 1-0 in the first leg and then lost 2-0 in the return. Hopefully we can get a bit of revenge this time around, get Annan into League One for the first time and make history.”

The 28-year-old hailed Saturday’s “professional” performance after effectively winning the tie last week at Galabank.

Clyde boss Jim Duffy was at Saturday’s second leg and Hooper is hoping his side can replicate last week’s drubbing.

He said: “The most important thing was keeping them quiet for the first 20 minutes so that there were no nerves.

“If we conceded a goal, then they would have got on a bit of a high.

“We knew if we kept it 0-0, we would be fine.

“Our plan was to try to counter-attack them when we could. It was a professional performance.

“The Clyde manager was here and if he didn’t see Tuesday, then he doesn’t know what’s coming. If we play like we did on Tuesday in the first leg, we can beat anybody.”

Both legs are televised on BBC Alba with tonight’s first leg kicking off at 7.35pm.