Crawford battle plan focusing on positives

Stevie Crawford reckons his East Fife side will need to show their battling qualities ahead of their trip to take on Airdrie this afternoon.

The Fifers head to Lanarkshire still bottom of the League One table after their 2-0 defeat to Montrose last weekend, but Crawford insists they have positives to take into their clash with the Diamonds.

Crawford said: “Having watched the game back now, we need to be taking chances when we get them. Montrose came into it in good form, but I thought we deserved to go in ahead at half-time because we did create some good scoring chances.

“We didn’t get the goal to put us ahead and soon after we lost the first goal, we conceded the second then had Kyle Connell sent off, so it was an uphill battle.

“We spoke to Kyle after training on Tuesday and he is disappointed in himself as he knows he let the team down, but it was more the eagerness of youth.

“He will be a big loss to us as he has a bright future in the game.

“There is a date for

Kilmarnock to review his loan deal in January, but he is certainly one we would like to try to keep until the end of the season.”

Crawford added: “Airdrie have won three in a row so are clearly in a rich vein of form.

“They play differently on the astro, which seems to suit them, but they have been playing similar formations and have a mainly settled side which is working for them.

“It will certainly be a challenging game that will be good for the character building, but we have to show our battling qualities to let Airdrie know they are in a game.”

Connell serves a onematch ban and misses out, while several others will be assessed closer to kick-off.