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January 24, 2025

Airdrieonians vs Dunfermline Athletic

Airdrie captain Adam Frizzell says there’s no room for error as the Diamonds prepare to welcome Dunfermline Athletic to the Albert Bartlett Stadium for Saturday’s crunch Championship fixture.

The league’s bottom two have struggled for form this season after winning promotion together in the summer of 2023, but with the Pars sitting 13 points clear in ninth place, most will see the meeting as a must-win for Airdrie.

The Diamonds could consider themselves unfortunate to be on the losing side in some recent matches, but last Saturday’s emphatic 5-1 Scottish Cup win at Dumbarton will boost morale, according to skipper Frizzell.

“Certainly playing, it felt more like ourselves – attacking football, creating chances, scoring goals. Five different scorers, and I still didn’t get one!

“We can only take confidence from it. Against a decent side with a few good older pros, it’s definitely a good result.”

While Airdrie were putting the Sons to the sword, Dunfermline were also advancing to the fifth round with a routine 3-0 home win over Stenhousemuir to give new manager Michael Tidser a winning start in the East End Park hotseat.

Saturday sees the third meeting of the sides this season, Mason Hancock cancelling out Chris Kane’s penalty in October’s 1-1 draw at the Albert Bartlett.

Lewis McCann scored the only goal of a contentious reverse fixture a month later, and Frizzell says Saturday’s third meeting is as important as they come.

“It’s our biggest game of the season – there’s no sugarcoating it, we’re not in a great place. We have to win on Saturday in my opinion, and we have to win a couple of games quickly to make that ground up. I believe we can do it, but it needs to start soon.

“They’ll have that bounce you get from getting someone in the door. They’ll think that if they can come here and get something here on Saturday it will put us to bed, so we need to stop that from happening.

“They’ve always been close games, I’ve played them for three years now, but we’re at home on Saturday and we’ve turned a corner in my opinion in the last month – we’ve not had the results to match it, but I think the performances have been a lot better, so we just need to keep performing like that and hope that the points will come.”

The Diamonds midfielder may have faith in his side’s ability to get out of trouble, but he doesn’t believe that is matched by those outwith the club – something which can work in Airdrie’s favour.

“The confidence is definitely up in there, and Saturday can only make that grow. Another win on Saturday and things will be starting to look up.

“We have nothing to lose, because everyone outside of this building probably has us written off anyway, but as long as everyone here believes that we can get it back, and we keep performing to the level that we have recently, I do believe it’ll come.”

Another factor which may come into play is the recent strengthening of the Diamonds squad. The January addition of Lewis Strapp and Ricco Diack comes alongside the return to fitness of a number of players.

Adam is delighted to see it.

“It’s massive, because nine times out of ten the starting XI doesn’t win the game. It’s the subs coming on who need to make an impact, and we’re now carrying a threat off the bench as well.

“It means players can get rested, rotated, whatever we need to do, and we’re going to need everyone for the run-in.”

Manager Rhys McCabe also recognises the importance of Saturday’s fixture – and expects the usual tight encounter with the Pars.

“Ultimately it’s a six-pointer – it’s the team that’s closest to us down at the bottom and we know what’s at stake. Likewise they’ll know what’s at stake, so it’s important that we go out there after a really good win on Saturday full of confidence and try to get the three points.

“Even going back to the League 1 days when we played them, it’s always competitive. It’s one that we’re looking forward to – these are the games that you want to be involved in.

“Of course we’d like the circumstances to be a lot better, but we are where we are and we’ve got to make sure that we go in there with the approach to get three points.”

Lewis Strapp (neck), Liam McStravick (knee) and Aaron Reid (ankle) have been involved in full training this week, while Mason Hancock (hamstring) and Gavin Gallagher (ankle) face further checks to determine the extent of injuries sustained against Dumbarton.

Referee Duncan Williams is in charge of his first Airdrie match of the season.

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 January 25, 2025

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3:00pm

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The Albert Bartlett Stadium, Airdrie

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Referee

Duncan Williams


Assistants

Chris Rae, Alastair Taylor

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