Airdrie won't have it easy at Queen of the South, warns defender

Airdrie defender Cammy Ballantyne expects a tough game against Queen of the South this afternoon, but says both sides will try to play good football.

Rhys McCabe takes his side to Palmerston Park on the back of two league wins over Peterhead and Falkirk, against a side that came down from last season's Championship.

But Ballantyne, who signed from Montrose in the summer, says the Diamonds will do everything they can to stretch their unbeaten run.

Ballantyne, 25, told the club's website: "They're a good team, they've got good players and are well organised, so it's never going to be easy.

"We need to go down there and just do what we can, and hopefully come away with another win.

"They're another full-time team so they'll be wanting to get the ball down and play, and so will we.

Airdrie picked up a great 4-0 home win over Falkirk last weekend, with Calum Gallagher scoring twice (John Steven)

"It's early days, you can only tell so much from the first two games, but from what we've seen so far it's going to be two teams wanting to play football."

Ballantyne was pleased with the 4-0 win over Falkirk at New Broomfield last weekend, as a Calum Gallagher double was added to by strikes from subs Gabby McGill and Salim Kouider-Aissa.

He said: "For the first 20 minutes they were the better team, they knocked it about well, without actually creating too much.

"As soon as we got to grips with that and got the goal, we started to take over, and we were clinical with our chances.

Player-boss Rhys McCabe hopes Airdrie will continue their form run (SNS Group)

"The first home game of the season, you want to put on a show. Luckily we did, with four goals!"

Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe says goalkeeper Josh Rae will be out for several weeks after a scan revealed the extent of his shoulder injury.

But ahead of the trip to Dumfries he said: "We go down with the same mentality as normal, and we go and try to win the game.

"The main thing for us is trying to keep that momentum going, continue the winning run, and try to emulate what we did last season when we went on that unbeaten run."

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