Airdrie v EK: Diamonds can't afford to get complacent, warns skipper

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Airdrie skipper Adam Frizzell has warned his side they can’t afford to get complacent when they host Lowland League champions East Kilbride in their Premier Sports Cup opener on Tuesday.The Diamonds were idle in Group A on the maiden weekend of the competition and kick off their campaign tonight in an exciting five-team pool, which also includes top-flight Aberdeen, as well as League One sides Dumbarton and Queen of the South.Championship cracks Airdrie enjoyed a perfect record in the group stages last season, topping the table with wins against Premiership Dundee, Dumbarton, Inverness and Bonnyrigg, before losing to Ross County after extra-time in the last 16.Frizzell says that shows they won’t fear anyone in their group this year either, but he stressed they won’t take their clash with Mick Kennedy’s fifth-tier side for granted either.He said: “East Kilbride is a good fixture for us to start with.

They are a club in a good place and they play good football.“East Kilbride were very unlucky not to come up last season after losing the play-off [for the SPFL].

The way the pyramid works, where you can win the league and maybe not get promotion is a bit crazy to me.“But East Kilbride are obviously a good team – you don’t win your league if you are not - so we will definitely need to make sure we are on it on Tuesday and impose ourselves on them.“I have played against [EK assistant boss] Si Ferry before a few times so I know the way he likes to operate and how he will like his side to play.“We’ve got a glamour fixture with Aberdeen to look forward to as well, so the way the draw has gone for us there are a lot of exciting games coming up.“Aberdeen will be heavy favourites for that game [on July 23] and the group.