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October 4, 2024

Airdrieonians vs Dunfermline Athletic

Murray Aiken expects a tight encounter when Dunfermline Athletic visit the Albert Bartlett Stadium on Saturday, with both sides giving their all as they fight to move up the table.

The teams are both in their second season in the Championship after winning promotion last year, but currently occupy the bottom two positions after difficult starts to their respective campaigns.

The Diamonds were perhaps undeserving of last weekend’s late defeat at Livingston, having performed well throughout the match, and midfielder Aiken says the Lions’ stoppage-time winner was a bitter blow.

“I think the performance was much better from the lads. We’re obviously still going away disappointed – I mean, I feel we should have got something from the game at least, but we’re getting that standard a wee bit higher so that was much better from us.

“It is a bit of a sucker-punch. I’ve seen videos of our reaction when that goal goes in, we’re all just devastated because we’re just looking for that something that’s going to push our season onwards, that point or three points to get us up and running again.

“Now we’ve had a few days to look back we can pick out the positives of it, but yeah – initially it was just gutting.”

While the result at the Home of the Set Fare Arena was undoubtedly frustrating, the squad can take heart from an improved performance after a couple of disappointing displays.

Hibernian loanee Aiken believes a change in fortunes is within reach.

“Confidence is a big thing in football, you just want results to go your way so you can ride that wave of confidence.

“Everyone in there knows that we’ve got more than enough to match anyone in this league, so we’ll hopefully get three points at the weekend and then we can keep that confidence building throughout the season.”

Saturday’s visitors are Dunfermline Athletic, who have an identical record to the Diamonds ahead of the match.

Encounters between the teams have typically been tight, with two wins for each side across last season’s meetings.

Ewan Otoo and Paul Allan turned around Craig Watson’s opener at East End Park on the opening day of the season, and the Pars secured another 2-1 win at Airdrie in December, Josh Edwards and Matty Todd scoring before Calum Gallagher’s late consolation from the spot.

The Diamonds took the spoils in the subsequent meetings, Nikolay Todorov and Gabby McGill earning a 2-0 win at Dunfermline in March’s rearranged fixture, and a month later Dean McMaster and Gavin Gallagher were on the scoresheet, netting either side of Malachi Fagan-Walcott’s goal in a 2-1 home win.

Aiken featured in the first fixture before injury cut his season short, but he saw enough to know how close Saturday’s match is likely to be.

“I think it’ll be a tough match, like any match, but we’re at home. We’ll fancy ourselves against anyone, not just Dunfermline. It’s a big match for us, we know that, but we’ll be going into it confident.

“We know within the squad we’ve got the ability, so we’ll try and take what the gaffer and Sinky are saying on board, take their gameplan and try to execute it the best we can.

“I think both teams have got a point to prove, both teams are desperate to get points on the board. It’ll just be like any other Championship game, two teams going at it – and hopefully we’ll come out with a good result.”

Diamonds fans will be hoping that the return of players from the club’s lengthy injury list will signal a run of improved results, and Murray was pleased to see a healthier squad in training this week as he and his team-mates aim to make up for last week’s disappointment.

“It gives us a boost seeing folk close to coming back, then obviously Rhys coming back – it’s good to have as many bodies as possible. We’ll be stronger on the pitch and stronger off the bench as well, so it gives us that extra lift.

“We can’t wait, we just want the next game there so we can put that right. I know it was better, but at the end of the day we still didn’t get anything from the game. We want to be getting as much as we can from every game, so we’ll be raring to go.”

Manager Rhys McCabe expects another closely-fought encounter with the Pars, with current form – and history – suggesting that there is little between the sides.

“We’re probably in a very similar position in terms of where we are confidence-wise and how performances have gone.

“They’ve been unlucky in a couple of results, we’ve watched the games back and watched the Raith Rovers game where they thoroughly deserved the win, and they’re probably a wee bit inconsistent like ourselves. They’ll be looking to try and build up their consistency with a good performance and trying to get a result.

“The games are always competitive. I know Jas and Dave from our League 1 days all the way through – they’re competitive regardless of who’s on form. I won’t read too much into that, I’ll fully expect the best Dunfermline team to turn up here and cause us problems, and likewise they’ll be expecting the best Airdrie team.”

The Diamonds player-boss remains sidelined through injury, alongside Aidan Wilson, Dean McMaster, Liam McStravick and Terrell Agyemang.

Rhys Armstrong returns from suspension, and Luke Badley-Morgan and Ben Wilson are expected to be available having resumed training this week.

Peter Stuart takes charge of his first Airdrie match of the campaign. The whistler oversaw two matches featuring the Diamonds last season, December’s 1-0 defeat at Ayr and the 5-2 home win over Arbroath in March.

Match tickets are available using the link below, and our DiamondsTV video (subscribers outwith the UK and Ireland) and audio (pay-per-match worldwide) streams are available.

Please be aware that behaviour deemed unacceptable will result in ejection from the stadium. Issues arising during the match can be reported anonymously - see the posters around the stadium for more information. Our unacceptable conduct policy can be viewed using the link below.

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Saturday October 5, 2024

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3:00pm

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The Albert Bartlett Stadium, Airdrie

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Referee

Peter Stuart


Assistants

Calum Spence, James McCluskey

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