Airdrie player-boss Rhys McCabe is back in action after four months out – and the defender admits he is feeling it ahead of today’s clash with Hamilton Accies.
The 32-year-old suffered three tears to his calf in August but returned to the field in last week’s defeat to Partick, playing 70 minutes.
Diamonds now travel to derby rivals Accies and McCabe insists he will shrug off the aches and pains to help his rock-bottom side against a team they have yet to beat this season, having lost 4-0 at home last month and drawn 2-2 at Hamilton in August.
McCabe said: “It’s another good match to be involved in, and we’ll be ready for it. I was feeling it in the legs after playing last week, having not trained in a long time, but I’ll be fine!
“We know what to expect from Hamilton, and we know where we need to improve from last time.
“Although it was a heavy defeat, it could have easily finished 7-7 – it was like a basketball game.
“While we made chances, we were too open and we looked vulnerable. We’ll tighten up on that and hopefully end the year with a positive result.”
The Diamonds have gone 17 straight games without a Championship clean sheet and defender Sam Graham says they must be on their game to get anything from their trip to South Lanarkshire.
The Englishman said: “We’ve been performing a bit better, and players coming back has helped with that, but we’re still not close to where we want to be.
“We’re still losing poor goals, and we need to be better there. If we keep the ball out of the net and take our chances at the other end, we’ll start getting results.”