James Ward, the Albion Rovers manager, yesterday signed a new one-year contract with the Coatbridge club and is preparing to sign another, longer, one at the weekend.

Ward, who gets married on Sunday, was appointed last summer and led the SPFL League 2 side on their best Scottish Cup run in 80 years, reaching the quarter-finals, where they came within 12 minutes of defeating Rangers before losing in a replay.

Ward said: "I am delighted to get this sorted ahead of my big match at the weekend. We have had a good first season but not a great one as we would have liked to have been higher up in the table and really pushing for promotion. We will look to do that in the next campaign and in the meantime I am preparing for East Stirling on Saturday and then a busy day on Sunday."