Calum Gallagher says Airdrie are going back to basics to arrest an alarming form slump and move back up the League One table.
A 3-1 defeat to FC Edinburgh at Meadowbank on Saturday left the Diamonds eighth in the table, their second defeat on the bounce, and having taken just a point from their last five league games.
That leaves Airdrie 10 points behind leaders Dunfermline, and nine adrift of their conquerors, who also racked up a 6-0 win at New Broomfield in September.
That’s a far cry from last season when Airdrie reached the Championship play-off final, and while Gallagher says that has raised expectations, the former Rangers and St Mirren hit man knows they must try to get back to winning ways when Montrose visit this weekend.
He said: “The manager touched on it after the game that it is about getting back to basics, earning the right to play.
“I know these are clichés in football, but it’s something that we have kind of struggled with in the last few weeks.
“If it takes until the 60th minute of just working hard and grafting to get your boot into the game, to then dictate the style of play you want on the game, then that’s just something we need to be prepared to do.
“It will be difficult, it has been a disappointing last few weeks, but after Saturday’s first half, we’ve certainly got something to build on.”
So far the Rhys McCabe experiment isn’t paying off for the Diamonds, as the youngest manager in the SPFL at 30-years-old struggles to hit the heights Airdrie managed last season.
However, Gallagher reckons in time the squad will come good again.
He added: “We’re a work in progress, and I’d say that’s probably the case for most teams at this level.
“Last season for us, to an extent, was a bit ‘lighting in a bottle’. We had so many players playing at some of the best levels of their careers, and have moved on.
“It’s a reduced squad size, and it was always going to be difficult to replicate.
“But I think the thing is that we have the core of the team that did it, so we know that it is there and we can reach it.
“It’s a case of getting it to click, the same way it did last season.
“Obviously that hasn’t happened so far, but that’s not to say it won’t in the next few weeks or months.”
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