Robbie Hemfrey has made three appearances since joining the Diamonds a fortnight ago, but the goalkeeper is already preparing for a second meeting with Arbroath - and hopes to return from Gayfield with a third win.

It has been a whirlwind start for the former Stoke City and Rotherham stopper, who signed as a free agent following an injury to number one Josh Rae.

Having already played his part in a debut win over the Red Lichties, Hemfrey picked up a winners medal from last week’s SPFL Trust Trophy final before tasting defeat against Ayr United on Friday evening.

Speaking after the match, he told airdriefc.com how it felt being pitched in at the deep end and having to quickly forge relationships with a defence he’d never met.

“It will come. It takes time, it takes days on the training pitch, the bonding and getting to know when to come and when not to come - what they’ll deal with and what I’ll deal with. That comes, and we’re getting there.

“I’m happy to be here - people have been asking me that, but it’s not about me. It’s about the team. Our aims are to get in the play-off positions and cement ourselves there.

“The boys are together in there. They know what’s happening, we’ve got ourselves in such a good position. We just need to look up, attack it game by game, pick ourselves up and go again.”

Ayr proved they had other ideas on Friday, completing a clean sweep of victories over Airdrie after a three-minute turnaround at Somerset. Josh O’Connor had given the Diamonds a deserved lead in the first half, but goals from Anton Dowds and Sean McGinty swung the match in the Honest Men’s favour.

Hemfrey is pleased that Tuesday’s trip to Angus provides a quickfire opportunity to make amends.

“We knew we’d got ourselves in a good position in the first half, and at half-time we knew we just had to be strong - and that ten minutes just killed us.

“We need to pick ourselves up, and luckily we’ve got a game on Tuesday to put it right.”

Jim McIntyre’s side were the opposition for the 22-year-old goalkeeper’s Diamonds bow, and the tenth-placed side obviously hadn’t read the script when Ryan Dow handed them a 16th-minute lead at the Excelsior.

Goals from Arron Lyall and Liam McStravick turned the scoreline on its head before the break, and Mason Hancock, Charlie Telfer and Craig Watson found the net in the second half, alongside a second Arbroath goal from David Gold, to make the final outcome 5-2 to Airdrie.

Despite that good win, the Gayfield men have already proven they can be a thorn in Airdrie’s side with a 4-0 home victory early in the season.

Robbie saw enough to confirm that the Lichties are a better side than their position suggests.

“We know they’re a good team, we know they’ll battle. We need to be strong defensively, ruthless in both boxes and go there to get the win.

“We know what to expect. The boys have been there and they’ll know what’s coming. We’ve just got to be in the right frame of mind and be ready.

“It’ll be tough. Conditions will be tough, the pitch might not be great - but we go there and we focus to win and come back down the road with three points.”

Player-manager Rhys McCabe wants to see a positive attitude from his side after Friday night’s defeat.

“It’s alright coming away and feeling sorry for yourself for the initial part, but football is a game where luckily we’ve always got another game or a training session that you can look forward to.

“I’m sure the boys will be desperate to try and correct the wrong by getting a result on Tuesday, but ultimately we’ve got to make sure that we’re not sulking.

“Results happen - there’s nothing we can do about it now, it’s about how we react and respond. That’s going to be the biggest factor.”

The Diamonds boss will be without goalkeeper Josh Rae (head) and midfielders Murray Aiken (ankle) and Liam McStravick (knee) ahead of the trip, but may be back in contention himself following a hamstring strain.

Referee Dan McFarlane has already overseen two good wins for Airdrie this season - August’s 2-1 home victory over Inverness, and January’s 1-0 win against Raith at the Excelsior.

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