Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
BELIEVE IN YOURSELVES
Findlay’s plea after Diamonds give Livi a real battle
Stephen Findlay is urging his squad to carry “selfbelief” after they were defeated 2-1 by Livingston in their opening Betfred Cup group game.
The Diamonds boss says he is encouraged by a “terrific second-half performance” during a game which was lost through a defensive howler from Scott Gallagher and Chris O’Neill.
A Darryl Duffy goal shortly after half-time ignited a spark in the Diamonds who went on to run the Premiership side close, and Findlay is demanding that level of performance for longer periods.
He told the Advertiser: “This team is still getting to know each other.
“The two goals Livingston scored took the wind right out of our sails as we had started well.
“We changed the shape in the second half and asked them to do a few things differently and I thought they were excellent.
“It was a terrific second-half performance and we must aim to play like that for longer periods.
“We’re capable of it, so the players just need to believe in themselves.
“Those were the parting words after the game; carry self-belief out with you onto the park.
“There’s still so much more to come from the guys and they’ll learn from that match.”
Airdrie conceded two goals in less than two minutes midway through the first half, the second of which saw right-back O’Neill inadvertently block Gallagher from coming out to collect the ball, causing him to fumble it straight to the feet of Lions attacker Lee Miller, who accepted the gift and tapped it in.
Despite the setback, Airdrie refused to crumble and pleased Findlay with the way they carried out his pre-match instructions.
He explained: “We worked on pressing the Livi defence a lot.
“If you do it at the wrong time, they’ll just kill you with their quality and they did on occasion.
“But a perfect example of it was our goal when Darryl made his move and Dale [Carrick] was able to play him through one-on-one.
“We defended well at set pieces which is a huge ask against Livingston because of the sheer height in their team.”
After a rest this midweek, Airdrie will travel to Berwick on Saturday for a game which they must win to have any realistic hope of progressing through the group stages.
Findlay added: “Nobody expected us to get anything from the Livingston game.
“We felt we could and we came close to it, but Berwick is now a totally different prospect.
“We’re the favourites for this one and the focus is on going and winning the game rather than just putting up a fight.”