Charlie Telfer says Airdrie must embrace the pressure of Saturday’s showdown with Ross County if the Diamonds are to record another memorable Dingwall victory.

The sides currently occupying ninth and tenth positions in the William Hill Championship table go head-to-head at the Global Energy Stadium this weekend, and the stakes could barely be higher as the scrap for survival heads into the home stretch.

Airdrie come into the match after a free weekend due to the international break, while Ross County blew a one-goal lead to go down 3-1 to Partick Thistle.

The Staggies result at Firhill mirrored Airdrie’s last match a fortnight ago, in which Adam Devine’s Stark’s Park opener proved meaningless as Raith Rovers eased to victory.

Midfielder Telfer says it was another frustrating result, especially ahead of a gap in the schedule.

“It was disappointing, the way it ended, especially as we were in the game for 60 minutes – we obviously take the lead.

“It kinda hurts, and then you have to wait a bit longer, but we’ve worked hard over the days and the weeks leading up to the game on Saturday.

“We’re looking forward to it, and we need to prove some things and try to get a positive result.”

While focus will remain squarely on the football match, it is impossible to ignore the situation surrounding the fixture.

A win would see Airdrie move back into ninth spot, a point ahead of their opponents with that game in hand against Dunfermline still to come.

With such ramifications undoubtedly adding pressure to the match, Telfer believes the Diamonds can use that to their advantage.

“I think there has to be a realisation of where we are in the league – time’s running out, we’ve not got 20 games left. We are where we are and we’re playing against our closest rivals currently.

“There’s a real pressure on the game, and I think at this stage of the season we need to just kinda embrace that. There’s no point in staying it doesn’t mean anything, because it does – it’s massive, and it’s one game less if we don’t get the result on Saturday.

“We know the enormity of it, so we’re all focused, we’re all working hard, and we’ll all be ready for Saturday.”

And Telfer and his team-mates need look no further than their last visit to the Highlands for inspiration. Back in December goals from Gavin Gallagher and Euan Henderson put Airdrie in the driving seat before a late Jay Henderson consolation – a result which saw the Diamonds leapfrog County into ninth place.

“Looking back at that last game, we went up there and we were excellent. It was 2-1 on the night, but we were really good for the majority of the game.

“We need to take confidence that we’ve been up there, we’ve done the journey, got the result and the performance to match that.”

And although recent results have been frustrating, Charlie points to the Airdrie squad’s ability to bounce back as a key factor in this week’s search for a win.

“There’s been parts of this season where we’ve gone on decent runs, and there’s been parts where we’ve not been playing well or getting results, and I think we’re always able to pick ourselves up on Monday morning.

“After the Raith game everyone was disappointed – the manager was as disappointed as anyone with us all, and I think we took that and it gave us a shock. We’re in a fight now, and it’s now or never.

“The spirits are high, there’s a confidence that we’re a good team, but it’s all very well and good saying that. We need to go and get results on a Saturday, so hopefully it starts this weekend.”

Head coach Aaron Taylor-Sinclair is aware of the task facing his side, but believes they are capable of a potentially momentous result.

“They’re all massive games coming up, no bigger than this one on Saturday. We went to watch them on Friday night against Thistle – they’ll obviously be disappointed with how the game went, they started well and then Thistle took control.

“They’ve recruited physical players in January, so it’s a physical team. They like to get the ball forward quickly, so it’s about us being prepared for that.

“We’ll just be going looking to what we’ve built on the last 10-12 days, build from there, and hopefully we can take that into Saturday. We’ve gone up there and won before, so there’s no reason we can’t. We’ve got to be in positive spirits and go and attack these last six games.”

The Diamonds boss confirmed a similar injury scenario to the Raith match, with Dylan MacDonald, Aidan Wilson, Dean McMaster and Alex King still struggling, but Lewis Strapp returns to the squad following suspension.

Referee David Dickinson has been in charge of two matches featuring Airdrie this season, defeats to Ayr United and Dunfermline Athletic in September and October respectively.

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.