Airdrie will be missing Nathan Blockley for the Boxing Day trip to Hamilton Accies after his red card in Saturday's defeat to Falkirk.

The highly-rated central midfielder was sent-off in the closing stages of the Diamonds' 4-1 reverse at New Broomfield.

Airdrie made four changes to the team which lost 2-0 at Morton last weekend.

Andrew Duncan, Chris O'Neil, Sean Lynch and Ryan Donnelly came in for Grant Adam, Grant Evans, Jamie Barclay and Paul Di Giacomo.

The home side created the first real opportunity on a wet afternoon with Jamie Bain's strike bouncing awkwardly in front of keeper Michael McGovern who made a good save.
From the resulting corner, on-loan Motherwell winger Josh Watt's excellent delivery was nodded wide by Gregor Buchanan.

In the 24th minute, Bain's cross found Donnelly but his header was held by McGovern. Falkirk's first real effort on goal came from Craig Sibbald who drove a shot over the bar.
Watt was Airdrie's key man and he came close on the half-hour mark after some good play by Liam Buchanan.

But Falkirk nicked the lead just before the interval. Kieran Duffie ran off Marc Warren and eventually delivered a low cross which was turned into the net by Jay Fulton who got the better of O'Neil.

The Diamonds equalised in the 56th minute when a Warren free-kick came off Jonathan Flynn and fell kindly for Donnelly who buried his first goal of the season.

Steven Pressley's men restored their lead midway through the second half with Thomas Grant's terrific pass finding Taylor who fired into the bottom corner of the net.

Airdrie's hopes of rescuing a point were dealt a huge blow in the 79th minute when Nathan Blockley was sent-off for a second bookable offence after a foul on Jay Fulton.

From the free-kick, Grant delivered the ball perfectly for Taylor who headed home and the 22-year-old striker bagged his hat-trick effort, and 13th goal of the campaign, in the final minute.

Diamonds boss Jimmy Boyle said: "I don't think we deserved to lose the game 4-1. I thought we did really well in the first half and had good chances.

"We could make life easy for ourselves by taking some of those chances and not conceding so close to half-time. I don't think we're getting the rub of the green just now.

"We will have to take this one on the chin. I've told the players I don't think they deserved that scoreline. We've now got to get ready for a big game at Hamilton."

The manager confirmed a decision will be made on Boxing Day morning as to whether or not Adam will return from compassionate leave to face Accies.

He added: "We will see what frame of mind he is in. I know he is really keen to get back into it again but it will be left up to him."

Colin Paterson at New Broomfield.

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