Loan star Scott Fox took pelters from Airdrie fans as he turned out for Morton against his hometown club - but admits he timed his comeback from injury perfectly.
The Motherwell shot-stopper was drafted in as an an emergency loan for Gus Macpherson's side in their Championship play-off final first leg on Tuesday night after a goalkeeping crisis at Cappielow.
And he made is return on a night the Diamonds were able to welcome supporters back to the stadium for the first time in 14 months.
Five hundred Airdrie fans certainly made themselves heard as they jeered the former Celtic goalie, but Fox had the last laugh as Ton grabbed a 94th minute winner through Robbie Muirhead to take a 1-0 advantage into tomorrow's second leg.
Fox hadn't played a game since before lockdown and has never experienced playing in a game without fans.
And he said: "I was getting some pelters from the Airdrie fans in the stand but at the end they were waving at me at the end. And I was like, no hard feelings, cheers.
"I've timed it perfectly so the fans are back and I'm back, so it's happy days.
“I hadn’t played for 14 months.
"It was a weird feeling. You train every day, but coming back there was a lot of risks but I wanted to get fit and they only way to do that is to play games.
“I’m looking forward to Friday now. We’ve got the advantage now and hopefully we can see it through.”
A freak training ground injury ruptured Fox's ACL just weeks after joining the Steelmen at the start of last season.
He is yet to play a competitive game for the Steelmen's first team after undergoing surgery, so he jumped at the chance to get some action after Aidan McAdams picked up an injury in Morton's semi-final win over Montrose.
The 33-year-old added: "Morton put in a call last week because they knew Aidan was struggling.
“Motherwell had it on their minds that they would like me to play games, but maybe at the start of next season so I ended up just coming because Gus spoke to me and I want to play games.
“I spent a good hour with the players before the game and the training went well.
“It was a good win to come back in, the boys looked after me well and I’m pain-free, so it's all good.
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