Dom Thomas admits that Airdrie need a big performance to turn Saturday’s play-off against Alloa around – but the forward is confident that the Diamonds can dig deep.

Trailing 1-0 to Scott Taggart’s penalty after a frustrating Tuesday night at the Indodrill Stadium, Airdrie have 90 minutes to salvage the tie in front of a home crowd in Saturday’s second leg.

Thomas was perhaps the Diamonds’ biggest threat in front of goal in Clackmannanshire, seeing a host of early chances blocked, saved, or just missing the target – but the January signing concedes that the overall display was far from acceptable.

“The performance wasn’t good enough – the scoreline shows that and the lads are disappointed in themselves for not performing better and getting a positive result.

“We know we have another 90 minutes to put that right. On Tuesday, in the first half especially, we created some good chances and their goalie made a few saves – so hopefully on Saturday we can turn those into goals.”

The Wasps are worthy of their lead after showing strong defensive organisation and a constant threat on the break, but having demonstrated his abilities as a creative force in the Championship for a number of years, Thomas is relishing the challenge of finding a way to overcome the League 1 side.

“I think we can expect more of the same from them. They’re well organised, and they’re hard to break down in a low block.

“That puts the onus on us to be creative and to find a way to break them down. If we do that, we know we can carve out the chances to go on and win the tie.”

And Thomas would like nothing more than to give the Diamonds faithful something to cheer after Tuesday’s disappointment.

“The fans have been great with us, and with me personally since I came in. They deserve better, and it’s up to us to repay them.

“Ultimately the only way we can do that is to win the tie, so if we all stick together on Saturday we can hopefully do that.”

With a single goal all that separates the sides, and Airdrie unbeaten in four before Tuesday’s match, Dom insists that the Diamonds squad have enough quality in their ranks to turn things around.

“With the home advantage and the fans behind us, I have full faith in the squad to overturn the 1-0 deficit.

“The players we have are more than capable of doing that, so we need to do our talking on the park.

“We know that goals change games in football, and we have to be on the front foot right away on Saturday, get ourselves back level in the tie, and take it from there.”

Head coach Aaron Taylor-Sinclair is also of the belief that his side can control Saturday’s tie and progress to the play-off final.

“At 1-0 it’s a very fine margin, so the tie is very much alive.

“We know where we can hurt them, and it’s now about implementing that come Saturday.”

“We have to show fight, desire and courage on and off the ball, and be prepared to take our chances when they come.”

The Diamonds boss was keeping his cards close to his chest in regard to his squad situation, with the likes of Dylan MacDonald, Craig Ross and Euan Henderson being given every opportunity to recover from recent knocks.

One player who will miss out is Lewis Strapp, who faces a two-match suspension after the club’s appeal against his recent dismissal was unsuccessful.

Referee Ross Hardie takes charge of his first match featuring Airdrie this season.

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