Sean Crighton wants the Diamonds to keep their winning run going as they prepare to welcome Edinburgh City to Airdrie for this weekend’s Scottish Cup second round tie.

The postponement of last weekend’s league match at Dumbarton interrupted the club’s schedule, but captain Crighton says morale is high following good wins at Falkirk and Clyde.

“The game being off wasn’t ideal because we were hitting a wee bit of form and the last couple of performances had been really good, but there’s nothing we can do about the weather. We just need to get on with it, and we’ve been working hard in training.

“Credit has to go to the stadium staff for making that possible, their work in making the pitch playable has been first class and it’s meant we haven’t had any interruptions to our training schedule and we can look to keep our momentum going.”

With the Dumbarton match put aside, Airdrie’s attention turned to this weekend’s Scottish Cup second round tie against Edinburgh City.

Crighton has fond memories of his introduction to last season’s competition, when the Diamonds won a thrilling cup tie at Albion Rovers and the Diamonds captain grabbed an unusual “perfect” hat-trick, scoring a headed own goal before volleying home with either foot - at the right end this time.

The 30-year-old is keen to get his first goal of this season as Airdrie enter the much-loved competition.

“I’m actually quite disappointed I haven’t scored yet this season! Hopefully that will come for me sooner rather than later, and Saturday would be the ideal time to open the account.

“I tried my best to get on the scoresheet on Boxing Day, but Dale put it in. As long as the team are scoring and I’m helping to keep the door shut at the back, I don’t mind.

“No matter what happens on Saturday, getting through to the next round is the most important thing. The Scottish Cup is huge in this country, and we obviously want to do well and get as far as we can.”

That starts with a home match against League Two side Edinburgh City, which comes hot on the heels of the first competitive meeting of the sides in November’s Betfred Cup tie.

The visitors were victorious on that occasion, Blair Henderson scoring the only goal of the match after just five minutes.

Sean only made a brief cameo appearance that night, but the Diamonds skipper was impressed by James McDonaugh’s side.

“It’s going to be a hard game again. I was on the bench that night and only got on for the last five or six minutes, but watching from the side I could see how well organised Edinburgh City were - like most League One and Two sides they’re hard to break down and we’re expecting another tough 90 minutes.

“We’ve just got to worry about us, and if we keep that momentum up I’ve got no doubt that we can go on and get through the cup tie.

“When you’re a lower league club it’s important not to get too far ahead of yourself so we’ll take it one game at a time and see what happens from there.”

Manager Ian Murray agreed that the visitors from the capital have already shown their quality.

“They’ve got the players to give us a hard game as we saw in the Betfred Cup match, but we’re on good form and we’re looking forward to the game.

“We know how much the Scottish Cup means to people, and we want to make amends for that earlier defeat by progressing to the next round.”

The Diamonds boss confirmed that he has a fully fit squad ahead of the tie, hinting that he may make changes to freshen up the side.

A live stream of the match is available on our DTVLive platform using the link below. Fans are reminded that cup matches are not covered by season tickets, so no access codes have been issued for this fixture.