Airdrie promotion dream still alive says Eric Black

Mar 26 2008 By Mark Sugden, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

KENNY Black is still dreaming of a promotion party but admits the thought of watching Ross County celebrate on Saturday would be a nightmare.

The Dingwall club will secure the title if they beat Airdrie at New Broomfield and the Diamonds boss has urged his men to finally break their County hoodoo to stop that happening.

Derek Adams’ side are 10 points clear with five games remaining and are odds-on for the championship with Airdrie seemingly set for the play-offs.

The omens don’t look good for this weekend. Airdrie have picked up just two points out of a possible 21 against the Highlanders in their last seven meetings.

Black said: “The bare minimum required for us is a draw but of course we will be looking for a win. There are still five games to go and 15 points to play for. We have to keep going and you never know what can happen.

“We wanted to be closer to them but while they have hit a dip so, unfortunately, have we. But this is a chance for us to finally get one over on them as our record against them hasn’t been good enough.”

Back-to-back defeats against Raith Rovers and Ayr United all but killed the Diamonds’ bid to catch Ross County but Saturday’s fine 4-1 victory against Peterhead restored pride and prolonged the fight - at least for another week.

Black said: “I was disappointed with the display against Raith Rovers. We just didn’t get started for some reason and didn’t deserve anything from the game.

“Against Ayr United, I thought we did fine for the first 45 minutes and the only thing missing was a goal.

“We’ve been poor after that and lost two really bad goals defensively. It was disappointing to lose successive league games for the first time this season and also to go two games without scoring.

“Those results brought out the doom-and-gloom merchants but we’ve responded well against Peterhead.

“We’ve had a few injury problems but the attitude of the players was excellent.

“We now just have to finish the season the best we can and second place is the minimum we should be looking at.”

Graeme Holmes is back training this week and could come into contention on Saturday but Steven McDougall is still out with an achilles problem. Marc Smyth returns after completing a three-game ban.

Two players set to feature are Allan Russell and Kevin Watt. The strikers won the player and young player of the year award, respectively, on Sunday night and Black believes they were worthy winners.

He said: “Allan has been tremendous this season and his goals have been significant for the team.

“Kevin hasn’t played a lot of football but it’s the supporters that make the choice and Kevin has certainly excited them with his performances from the bench this season.”

l In this week’s Airdrie United lottery, there were two winners of the £800 draw after 15, 16 and 17 were chosen. There was one winner of the £300 draw after 15, 18 and 20 were chosen.