With Montrose visiting Airdrie on League One duty this weekend, Dean Hawkshaw says only a home win is good enough to make up for last week’s cup disappointment.

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The former Kilmarnock midfielder picked up the man of the match award against Elgin City last Saturday, but it was the highland side who were celebrating as two late goals saw them through to the quarter-finals of the Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Cup.

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Hawkshaw admits a win would have been a more satisfying reward.

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“Obviously it wasn’t a good result, but we have to put that behind us and pick up from where we left off in the league. 

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“It was frustrating to have so many chances and not be able to score, but the longer you go on at 0-0 the more you’re open to a counter, as we saw.

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 “I would rather I hadn’t got man of the match and won the game. I felt I should have scored, but these things happen - hopefully I’ll get off the mark soon!”

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With three starts and six substitute appearances under his belt this season, the 22-year-old has his sights set on a run in the first-team as the Diamonds return to league duties.

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“I hope I’ve done enough to get a wee run in the team now, but that’s for the manager to decide. I’ll continue to give it my all when I do get a chance, and hopefully that’s enough.

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“We’re going into the second quarter now, so the aim for the whole squad is to push on and improve on the points total we got in the first quarter.”

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With Montrose picking up back-to-back league wins after a poor start to their season, Dean isn’t expecting an easy game on Saturday - but he believes that Airdrie owe their supporters a performance.

 

“There has to be a reaction after last week, we let the fans down and we have to give them something to cheer about.

 

“We obviously need to keep the door shut at the back, but we need to start scoring more. A lot of our goals have tended to come later on in games, so hopefully we can get an early goal to settle us down and push on from there.”

 

The Diamonds came out on top when they visited Links Park back in August, with Callum Smith scoring the only goal of the game.

 

Manager Ian Murray expects a similar match this time around.

 

“It was a tough game when we played them at Links Park, although we missed a penalty which might have made life easier for us.

 

“We’re expecting another difficult one on Saturday, they’re a fit, well-organised team and we’ll treat them with the respect they deserve after a brilliant fourth-place finish last year.”

 

The Airdrie boss is without injured pair Scott Gallacher and Craig Thomson.

 

Graham Beaton is in charge of his second Airdrie game this season, having refereed August’s defeat at Bayview.