Josh Rae wants a repeat performance from Airdrie as the Diamonds welcome FC Edinburgh to the Excelsior after a good win over Cowdenbeath in their Premier Sports Cup opener.

The goalkeeper joined from Queen of the South in the summer, and made his competitive debut in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Central Park.

Speaking after the match, Rae was pleased to have kept a clean sheet on his first start for the Diamonds.

“We had to come and do the job - the pitch doesn’t make it easy, but I thought everyone did their job really well and it was a comfortable win in the end.

“That’s my first competitive game and my second game, and two clean sheets. I’m really enjoying it and the style of play is brilliant, it suits me.”

A late winner for Arbroath at St Mirren means that Airdrie top Group E on goal difference after the first day of action.

Rae is hopeful that the Diamonds can extend their lead with a win over FC Edinburgh on Tuesday evening.

“We want to go as far as we can in this competition and get a big draw in the next round if possible.

“We’ll take it game by game and hopefully pick up as many points as we can.”

The match against the League 1 new boys marks Airdrie’s first home fixture of the season, and the first use of the new playing surface which was installed over the summer.

Having trained on the pitch, Rae has no doubts about its quality.

“It’s top class - obviously you want to play on grass, but if you’re playing on astro it’s the best of the best.

“It’ll suit our style of play, to keep the ball on the ground and pass it about.”

The Diamonds will be looking to impose that style on Tuesday’s visitors FC Edinburgh. The summer saw something of an overhaul for Alan Maybury’s side as they won promotion from League 2 and rebranded from their former name, Edinburgh City.

Josh has faced the men from the capital before, and knows what to expect from them.

“They’re always a decent side so it’ll be a tough game, but I’m sure if we play like we played today then we’ll be fine.

“We’ve got a way of playing and it’s up to us to come up with the results.”

Manager Rhys McCabe faces tricky preparations for the match with FC Edinburgh yet to play a competitive fixture, but the Diamonds player-boss insists that shouldn’t be an issue.

“It’s hard when teams are just coming back to pre-season, they’ll have a lot of boys in at training so unless they’re playing in these games, it’s the only way you can gauge a team.

“We’ve just got to focus on ourselves as we always do, and if we apply ourselves right then we should be fine.”

Ross Hardie is the referee for the Excelsior meeting, which kicks off at 7:45pm.

Match tickets and live stream access are available using the links below.