Season 2016/17 gets underway this Friday night with a Betfred Cup tie against Partick Thistle at New Broomfield. 

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Five new faces in the Ravenscraig changing room took time out from training to speak to airdriefc.com this week, as we asked #AreYouReady?

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With three days to go till the big kick off, we catch up with midfielder James Daly...

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HOW DID YOUR MOVE TO AIRDRIE COME ABOUT?
I’m friends with Joe Gorman, and he and his agent got hold of me and said Airdrie were interested in taking a look at a particular type of player. I flew over back in April to play in a trial game. After that the club said they were interested in talking to me about coming on board.

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WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CLUB?
Going back to that first trial game, everyone was very friendly and the style of football suited the way I like to play. I left that game thinking it would be nice to come over here, and when I finally did move to Scotland the chairman was very accommodating, helping me to get somewhere to live. It’s made it really easy for me to settle in a country where I don’t know anyone. 

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WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE TEAM?
I think I’m a very attack-minded player, I love driving at the back four and causing problems. Ideally at the end of the season I’d like to look back and think that I scored a handful of goals and created a handful of goals. I want to be a real influence – not just in the team but in the league.

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WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL AIMS FOR THE UPCOMING SEASON?
I’d like to hit double figures in terms of goals and be up there as well with assists. That’s a hard target for a midfielder, but I think if you don’t set your targets high then you don’t really perform to that level.

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WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS FOR THE TEAM AS A WHOLE?
We’ve started pre-season well. It’s different when the season starts with the pressure of results, and people might ask if our young squad will deal with that stress and pressure, but I think so far we’ve shown that we can. Hopefully we can take confidence into the season and being full-time we can have that little edge on other teams. As long as we perform consistently to our level I think we can compete with any team in this league.