Airdrie’s squad are aware of the importance of Saturday’s match against Greenock Morton, but Sean McGinty says the Diamonds must play the game and not the occasion as they aim to close out the third quarter of the league campaign with a win.

Ten William Hill Championship fixtures remain for Airdrie, who can now fully focus on their aim to move up the table after a hectic couple of months which saw good runs in the Scottish Cup and KDM Evolution Trophy come to an end.

With the Diamonds sitting in ninth place, each and every match will be a battle for points – and that’s exactly what defender McGinty expects when Morton visit the Albert Bartlett Stadium on Saturday.

“I think it’ll be a good game, they obviously lost last week but they’ve had a couple of good results recently.

“Every game in this league is really tough, so the boys are really looking forward to it. We’ll dust ourselves down and start preparing for what’s going to be a massive game in our season.

“We need to make sure we come out and put on a real show for the fans.”

McGinty was back in the side for Wednesday’s KDM Evolution Trophy semi-final against Raith Rovers. The visitors triumphed on penalties after a 1-1 draw, with the match becoming a third successive televised ‘near-miss’ for Airdrie following strong displays against St Mirren and St Johnstone.

The experienced defender insists the Diamonds aren’t far away from turning plaudits into points.

“Performances at home have been good, but results haven’t been good. We need to start picking up results at home, I think that’s going to be really key to the last part of the season.

“It all starts on Saturday, so we just need to make sure we come out, everyone does their jobs front to back, and make sure we put in a real solid performance to really take it to Morton – and hopefully get a really important three points.”

The Cappielow side are under new management, with former Diamonds boss Ian Murray making his first return to Airdrie since leaving Raith at the beginning of last season.

Both of the season’s previous meetings between the sides have been narrow away wins, Tomi Adeloye and Jackson Longridge netting either side of a Euan Henderson strike to hand the Ton a 2-1 win at the Albert Bartlett in October.

When the pair met again in December, it was McGinty himself who sent the Airdrie fans home happy from rain-lashed Cappielow as his towering header secured a 1-0 Diamonds victory.

Despite the change in the dug-out, McGinty expects a typical dogged performance from the Greenock side – and warns his team-mates to concentrate on getting the basics right.

“They’ll be pretty similar, they have similar players – I think they brought in a new striker, so they’re maybe a little bit more direct, but obviously with our surface I think teams come here and like to knock it about.

“We’ve got to be ready for whatever they’ve got to throw at us. We’ll watch the video on them and make sure we’re really prepared and know exactly what we need to do going into Saturday’s game.

“We all know it’s a big one, but we won’t build it up too much. We just need to make sure we go out and everyone does their jobs, and I’m sure if we do that we’ll come away with three points.”

And with a chance to narrow the seven-point gap to seventh-placed Ton, Sean reiterates that the squad are fully intent on turning things around.

“We just need to make sure we focus and do our job, make sure we’re picking up points where we can, and try to catch the team that’s right above us.

“Everyone’s confident – I think performances have been good, we just need to try to turn them into results now, and everyone’s focused on doing that on Saturday.”

Head coach Aaron Taylor-Sinclair is keen to get his side firing at home as he prepares for Saturday’s showdown.

“It's all about getting that home form sorted and trying to build momentum going into the last ten games.

“It’ll be a tough game. Morton have good players on the flanks, they’re nice and direct and they’ve got experienced strikers. We’ll have to be on our toes ready for that.

“We've had them watched the last few games, so we know their style – but as I say all the time, it’s about us and how we implement our game – especially being at home, we need to start on the front foot and go after them.”

Midfielder Rhys Armstrong was back among the substitutes on Wednesday evening after recovering from an ankle knock. Aidan Wilson, Alex King and Aaron Reid continue to miss out for the Diamonds, who welcome Robbie Mahon and Dom Thomas back into the squad after the pair had been cup-tied for the visit of Raith Rovers.

Grant Irvine is a familiar face in the middle this season – the referee is in charge of his fifth Airdrie game after overseeing July’s win over Montrose, September’s away defeat to Partick Thistle, December’s loss to Queen’s Park, and the KDM Evolution Trophy victory at Arbroath earlier this month.

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.