Beith boss Bryan Young says he is shocked but ecstatic as his side scooped the second largest amount of money from the Donate A Ticket scheme in non-league football.

Donate A Ticket was set up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic stopping fans from attending football matches to help clubs regain some revenue.

Founder Ruaridh Kilgour created the not-for-profit site where clubs can sign up for free and benefit from fans donating the monetary value of a match day ticket.

Figures released this week showed the Mighty gained a staggering £13,471 from fans backing of their virtual Scottish Cup run, where fans of teams went up against each other to see who could buy the most tickets .

Beith came up against fierce competition including Championship side Raith Rovers en-route to winning the competition.

Bryan said: “We ended up getting some great ties with certain clubs, a bit of banter back and forth on social media which was superb.

“We went onto win it with all the fans donating tickets , which was absolutely amazing. I was delighted.”

Despite a fantastic backing for the event which took place over May and June last year the club did not continue to use the site when the season started.

Young says this is because they wanted to give something back to their loyal fanbase, adding: “That is why we are sitting in second because since then we haven’t put anything on Donate A Ticket.

“We explored all the avenues with the fans but after that when the league started, we stopped it as we felt we had already asked the fans for enough.”

The timing of the competition came at a new era for the club following the resignation of John Millar and the start of a new regime.

Young says he was delighted that the fans backed his new management team right from the off.

He said: “Some club legends had left the club due to certain circumstances, but we still got the backing of the supporters which is so important to us and still seeing the backing of the fans financially was superb.”