Lewis McGrattan believes Airdrie are capable of bringing the points back from Gayfield as the Diamonds travel to test Arbroath’s formidable home record.

The Red Lichties are the Championship’s form team alongside leaders St Johnstone, with Airdrie a point behind over the last six following last Saturday’s defeat to Queen’s Park.

Josh Fowler’s double and a Henry Fieldson goal handed the Spiders victory in match where the Diamonds failed to reproduce their own recent impressive displays.

McGrattan admits the defeat – which saw Sean Crighton’s side leapfrog Airdrie into eighth spot – was a sore one, but says it’s in the past now.

“It’s obviously hugely disappointing for us, especially with how good our form was coming into it.

“We didn’t see it coming at all to be honest – but you can’t dwell on it. We’ve analysed it and it’s behind us, and we look forward now.

“We know we’ve been playing really well, so it’s just one game. That’s what we need to keep it as, one game, and kick back on Saturday.”

That requires a big performance against third-placed Arbroath, who show no signs of slowing the momentum which has kept them in promotion contention since their summer return to the Championship.

The Angus men have lost only two of their last ten matches, but McGrattan believes form is irrelevant when the whistle blows.

“Arbroath are doing really well up at the top end of the league, but we need to get back to how we have been playing previously, so that’s what our full focus is on for the weekend.

“It’s the same as every week, the best team will win the game. The form doesn’t really matter too much, like we saw last week ourselves. We’re full of confidence.”

Airdrie will need to buck the trend established this season in order to take anything from the match – in both meetings the home side has secured a 1-0 victory, ex-Diamond Nikolay Todorov grabbing the only goal of the game at Gayfield in August before Euan Henderson’s penalty reversed the scoreline at the Albert Bartlett in October.

If Arbroath’s overall form has impressed, their home form is nothing short of fantastic, with only one defeat at Gayfield this season, and two in the calendar year.

McGrattan expects a tense encounter as Airdrie’s look to continue their recent run of away successes.

“It is a really tough place to go, it always has been since I’ve played. We know what to expect, so all we can do is focus on ourselves and hopefully get a positive result.

“We’ve had three away wins in a row, so we’ll just be looking to keep that going.”

And with the match bringing the curtain down on 2025, Lewis is hoping to give the Diamonds faithful reason to celebrate at new year.

“It would be massive to end the year on a high and hopefully close that gap on the teams above us.

“We started this season pretty poorly, but we’ve picked it up a good bit so to finish on a positive result would be great for us all.

“There’s no point in looking below, all we can do is just try to win games and hopefully catch teams above us. Obviously Ross County will have the exact same mindset, but all we can do is try to win our games and worry about ourselves.”

Caretaker manager Aaron Taylor-Sinclair wants to see a reaction from his side after last weekend’s disappointment.

“It’s going to be a tough game up there, I think they’ve lost one game in 19 competitive matches. They’ve also beaten big teams in St Johnstone and Partick, so we’re under no illusions how tough the task is going to be.

“The guys up there are doing a great job, so it’s about us reacting from last week and going up there in a positive manner.

“It’ll be another close game. The small details in games matter, so we’ll analyse what we didn’t do well on Saturday and try to refine those little moments.”

The Diamonds interim boss is still without midfielder Alex King (groin) and striker Aaron Reid (knee), but expects defender Sean McGinty to be fit despite receiving five stitches to a gash above the eye after being elbowed on Saturday.

Referee Alastair Grieve is in charge of his first match featuring Airdrie this 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.