Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Let’s bring Raith crashing to earth
First-team coach Stephen Findlay is eyeing up a battle at the top of the table as crisis-hit Airdrieonians prepare to face title-challengers Raith Rovers.
The Diamonds returned to winning ways against Forfar after a dismal season so far, which has seen humiliating defeats to Arbroath, East Fife and Cove Rangers.
However, they have now opened up a gap between themselves and the relegation spots and moved within touching distance of the play-off places.
Off- field woes continue to hang over the club as the group of Airdrie-minded businessmen fronted by Bobby Watson go through the due diligence process – the second preferred bidder to be named for the club – as they look to save the outfit from their current nightmare and purchase Tom Wotherspoon’s majority stake.
Despite this, boss Findlay believes his young players have every right to be optimistic about the rest of the season as they welcome Raith in the BBC Alba televised match on Sunday at 4.10pm.
“It’s not been an easy time for anyone at the club, but we’re keen to put that behind us,” he told the Advertiser.
“We don’t take too much notice of everything that goes on behind the scenes at the club – we just want to do our jobs and win games on a Saturday.
“With the Arbroath, Cove Rangers and East Fife games we haven’t been doing that; it’s been a bad patch.
“To the players’ credit, when they have got a poor result they have managed to bounce back.
“Now we want to build that bit of momentum and have a bit of consistency in the results.
“One thing that has been missing since I came in is that we haven’t had a really good run of three or four results.
“For this group of young players, there are no easy games at this level.
“But I think they have the quality to compete with the top teams in the division.”
He added: “There is a lot of pressure on these guys with our current situation but I have every faith in them.”