Rhys McCabe says facing Premiership side St Mirren is a brilliant test for his young Airdrie side ahead of their League One campaign.
A win for the Diamonds at New Broomfield this evening would give them a great chance of qualifying from Group E, but McCabe says either way it's a good learning curve for his squad, which has recently taken in an influx from their academy set-up.
Stephen Robinson brings his Buddies to North Lanarkshire, needing points themselves, with Airdrie currently a point ahead of them in second place, while Arbroath top the table.
Airdrie travel to Arbroath on Saturday to finish off their group stages campaign, and McCabe said: "We want to test ourselves against the best in our group, and Arbroath and St Mirren are the two highest-ranked teams.
"It's a great test for us, especially as a young squad.
"If you're testing yourself against good opposition and giving a good account of yourself - as we did last season against Motherwell - it gives you a good tone for the rest of the season, knowing you can do it against these teams.
"If you can do that, why can you not maintain that into the league campaign?
"We want to win every game. We understand obviously for the club it would be great if we can get through, but we've got to take care of one game at a time.
"If it goes our way and we get through then great, and if not, it's a good learning curve and a building block.
"It would be a good foundation that we can use to see what we need to improve on, and what has worked well for us over the short campaign."
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