Airdrie vs East Fife preview - Defensive poser for Airdrie

Posted Tuesday, March 08, 2011 by PA

Airdrie have defensive concerns for the visit of East Fife.

Euan Grant is suspended following his sending off against Ayr at the weekend, and he will join banned team-mate Keiron Stallard on the sidelines.

Full-back Craig Hill has been ruled out with a facial injury and the experienced Eddie Forrest is a doubt, with Diamonds boss Jimmy Boyle looking for a huge turnaround from his men after they conceded five goals in the second half at the weekend.

Boyle said: "It definitely needs to be a whole lot better than that when we take on East Fife.

"They will be out for revenge after our win at their place recently, so we have to get back on the rails again really quickly."

East Fife boss John Robertson still has a number of injury concerns to deal with ahead of the trip.

Steven Campbell, Robert Sloan, Jim Hamilton and Ryan Wallace remain sidelined, but Scott Durie could be available to bolster numbers as the Fifers look to make fifth place their own.

Robertson has been delighted with the efforts of his patched-up side recently, saying: "The effort has been superb and we will need that again against an Airdrie side that beat us only 10 days ago.

"They had a bad result at the weekend and will be out to make up for that, so we need to be at the top of our game."