Andy Ryan believes Airdrie's winning mentality can set them on another run - starting at home to East Fife on Saturday.

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The Diamonds have suffered a dip in form after an excellent series of six consecutive wins, and top scorer Ryan says he and his team-mates need to make their own luck.

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"On our recent run we saw that when things are going well for you, they go well for you. You get all the wee breaks and stuff like that.

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"Right now I think we're conceding too many soft goals and we need to get back to defending as a unit.

"If we do that, another wee win could kick-start another run of good form."

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East Fife are Saturday's opponents, and both matches this season have been tight affairs.

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The newly-promoted Fifers went in front through Kevin Smith when the sides met at New Broomfield in September, but Iain Russell equalised from the penalty spot to earn a 1-1 draw.

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Ryan was the Diamonds goalscorer in the Bayview fixture a month later, and the striker is expecting another close-fought match.

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"East Fife are a decent side, and they're the form team in the league at the moment.

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"It's up to us to go and play our own game. We're at home, and first and foremost I think we need to produce a performance. Recent performances haven't been good enough to warrant victories so we need to get back to playing well and hopefully that will lead to a win."

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Both teams have seen changes in the dugout since the previous meetings, Mark Wilson taking over from Kevin McBride at Airdrie while Barry Smith has taken the reins at Bayview following Gary Naysmith's departure for Queen of the South.

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Ryan believes that the East Fife players will be out to make an impression on their new gaffer, but insists that's still the case at Airdrie too.

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"I think when a new manager comes in, players want to impress - and you can see that from their run of form. But our manager is relatively new as well, and he's working hard with us every day on the training field. We just need to get back to making that work on a Saturday."

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So is it a must-win game? For Andy, every game is.

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"Of course it's not technically a must-win at this stage of the season, but we feel we need to get the three points. We've slipped to third in the league and we want to be higher than that.

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"We go into every game with a winning mentality - it doesn't matter if it's a Saturday or a wee five-a-side game in training, you always want to win. There would be no point in playing otherwise."

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Head coach Mark Wilson believes that his squad can put an end to their dip in form.

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"It’s unfortunate that it’s come for us over the Christmas period when fixtures are quite congested, but we’re fully confident that we can put things right and go on another winning run."

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Alan Newlands referees the New Broomfield clash. The whistler recently officiated the Diamonds 4-2 win at Peterhead.