Jamie Sneddon knows Airdrie face a battle of wills when they visit Queen of the South on Saturday, with both sides giving their all for a first league win.

The Diamonds are on the road after three consecutive home fixtures, the latest of which was last weekend’s goalless draw with East Fife.

Sneddon will rarely have a quieter afternoon with the Fifers failing to register a shot on target, but the goalkeeper knows that his side have to start turning draws into wins.

“The positive you can take from it is another clean sheet, the second of the season, but frustration was the overall emotion after the game.

“We obviously went into the game desperate to win it and get that first win of the season, and we felt that it was a good opportunity.

“The way the game went we sort of bedded our way into it and started coming out on top – we just couldn’t find that goal, unfortunately.”

Summer signing Sneddon has been between the sticks for all five of Airdrie’s league fixtures this season, and although the defensive line ahead of him has changed on occasion, the 29-year-old has been happy with each iteration.

“It’s been good, they’re all brilliant players at the back so I’m really confident whoever’s playing in front of me.

“Obviously we had a tricky couple of weeks when we played Hamilton and County and it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but other than that I think we have been pretty solid defensively, so it’s just about finding out what went wrong and building that consistency.”

The Diamonds look to start that build with a trip to Palmerston Park on Saturday, where they face Queen of the South on league duty for the first time since April 2023.

The Doonhamers were 3-1 winners on that occasion, but Airdrie came out on top of two cup meetings the following season.

Sneddon, who spent time on loan in Dumfries last season, knows that the Diamonds will face a Queens side who will also be giving everything to turn their fortunes around after losing their opening four league fixtures.

“It’s probably two similar teams in similar positions. We haven’t started the way we wanted to at all, we went into the season with our own expectations and we’ve not reached that yet.

“Queen of the South will pose another tough test. Every team in this league does, you’re not going to get an easy game.

“We’re both down at the bottom of the table, so we’re both desperate to get that first win. It’s going to be two really determined teams – we just need to make sure that we’re the more determined.”

And Jamie firmly believes that a first Airdrie win could be the catalyst to kick-start a Diamonds revival.

“The collective feeling in the building the last couple of weeks is that we don’t feel like we’re a million miles away. The results haven’t been what we wanted, but the performances haven’t been far away from what we want.

“We’re getting in the right positions – it would be more worrying if we were backs against the wall in these games.

“Just getting that first win off the back might build a bit of confidence, so we definitely just need to keep a level head at this moment, keep plugging away and trying to improve every week.”

Head coach John Rankin wants his side firing on all cylinders as they face a Queen of the South side with new player-boss Nicky Clark assisted in the dug-out by his father – Airdrie legend Sandy.

“They’re a new team as well, Nicky’s obviously gone in there in the summer with Sandy.

“We know how tough a place that Palmerston is to go to, they’ll be desperate to get off the mark. They’ve scored some decent goals throughout the season so far, so we’ll need to be on top of our game defensively and obviously attacking to try and break them down.

“We’re ready for it – it’ll be a tough one, but they all are. Everything’s a challenge in this league, and we need to make sure that we’re at capacity going into Saturday.”

The Diamonds boss reported a couple of knocks being monitored among the squad, but was pleased with the return of Cole McKinnon, Gavin Gallagher and Dapo Mebude last weekend. Defender Mason Chisholm has also returned to training after a spell on the sidelines with a hip injury.

Referee Ross Birrell officiates a match involving Airdrie for the first time.

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.