ARBROATH 0

Disillusioned Dick Campbell insisted he couldn’t believe his eyes as Arbroath handed Airdrie an early Christmas present.

Campbell was left wondering what had got into his players who gave Rhys McCabe’s Diamonds a helping hand on theirwaytovictory,withLiam McStravick capitalising in 19 minutes before substitute Lewis McGregor sealed matters in 79 minutes.

It meant Campbell’s slide slumped to second bottom in the wake of their fourth straight league defeat, while on-form Airdrie jumped into fourth top.

And the Lichties gaffer pulled no punches afterwards as he pledged to sort out their defensive frailties.

Campbell said: “None of my teams have been guilty of defending like that for as long as I’ve been a manager.

“For both goals, we gave them cheap possession. We’re never really guilty of that but today was different.

“The second goal we lost was just amateurish. You can’t afford to lose goals like that andexpecttowin.

“Now we’ll get back down to hard work on Monday night on defensive play. We’re going to get the sleeves rolled up and get ready to go again.”

Arbroath arrived in north Lanarkshire knowing victory would see them leapfrog the Diamonds who they thrashed 4-0 at Gayfield back in September.

And It was the visitors who carved out the first real goalscoring opportunity in 10 minutes when a neat one-two resulted in Jay Bird firing into Josh Rae’s side-netting.

Buttheyfoundthemselves trailing come the 20th minute. Derek Gaston parried a Nikolay Todorov shot after some slack defending but McStravick made no mistake by blasting home the rebound from pointblank range.

Airdrie grabbed the allimportant next goal. Slater lost possession and Calum Gallagher’s ball over the top was ideal for McGregor to run on to and he kept his calm to finish past Gaston from 10-yards.

Elated Airdrie boss McCabe said: “I’m really pleased for the players. They were at it from the first whistle today which is the only way to play in this division. And they got their just rewards.”