Charlie Telfer says high-flying Raith Rovers are the perfect opponents as Airdrie look to get back to winning ways.

The Diamonds travel to Stark’s Park to face Ian Murray’s side without a win in their last four matches, while the Kirkcaldy men only have one league defeat to their name - against Airdrie.

Speaking after Tuesday’s match against Dundee United, midfielder Telfer bemoaned his side’s inability to take advantage of a long spell where they had the league leaders on the ropes.

“It’s just another tale of us not taking chances when we get them, or being ruthless enough. That’s no blame put on anyone - it’s all of us.

“When we get chances we need to be ruthless. I don’t think they had many, and they scored two goals. It just shows why they’re up there and why we’re not getting results of late - so we’re really frustrated.”

When it comes to Saturday’s trip to Fife, Telfer says the objective is simple.

“Learn from the mistakes that we made against Dundee United.

“We just need to focus on the good things that we did, and be really positive and believe in ourselves - and still have that belief that we’re a good side despite the poor results we’ve had.

“There’s been loads of positives to take from all of those games, so I don’t think we should be too downbeat, yet we need to acknowledge the fact that the results haven’t been good enough.”

The Diamonds were victorious when the sides met at the Excelsior in September, Calum Gallagher’s second-half strike securing the points.

Raith are unbeaten since then, and remain hot on the heels of league favourites Dundee United. Telfer isn’t surprised by their form, despite their earlier loss at Airdrie’s hands.

“We know they’re a good team, they’ve got good players, but I think when we played them here we showed them how good a team we can be.

“We really imposed our game, and I don’t think they really had a chance. I think they hit the post in the first half, but after that we were really good.

“It comes at a good time - we need a result, we need a good performance, so who better to do that against than one of the best teams in the league. We’re all really looking forward to it and we all want to put things right.”

The match comes in the middle of a run of four games in two weeks, but Charlie believes that can work to Airdrie’s advantage after the Dundee United defeat.

“I like it, it means you have to focus again and regroup. If it was a Saturday game, you’re dwelling on it on Sunday, you come in on Monday to dissect the game again - whereas now we just need to get back in, recover right and train well on our new focus.

“It’s a good time to get them and we’re ready to really impose our game on them and try to get a good result.”

Manager Rhys McCabe added: “It’ll be a tough one, they’re up at the top end of the table and continue to get good results.

“We know how competitive the last game was, and Saturday will no doubt be more of the same.”

The Diamonds player-boss is waiting on scan results to determine the extent of an ankle injury picked up by Murray Aiken on Tuesday evening, but fellow midfielder Dean McMaster is expected to be ready to return to action after missing recent matches following painkilling injections.

Chris Graham is in charge of his second Airdrie match of the season, having refereed September’s 2-0 defeat at Tannadice.

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