Premiership place is still Airdrie's target, insists boss after Morton defeat

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe denies that Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Morton is a major set-back in their quest for a play-off slot, and says scrapping it out for a place in the Premiership is a realistic target.But McCabe says they will need to raise their performance levels from Cappielow and achieve a level of consistency.The Diamonds were put to the sword early on in Greenock as George Oakley headed in Jai Quitongo’s cross in eight minutes, and Michael Garrity capitalised on a defensive error to double their lead two minutes later.Quitongo should have added a third in the second half, before Airdrie assistant boss Callum Fordyce bagged a late consolation.That left Airdrie seventh in the table ahead of tonight's trip to Dundee United – with Morton travelling to Raith – and eight points behind their fourth-placed rivals, but with a game in hand.McCabe said: “I saw Dunfermline win [against Partick Thistle] last Friday when they ‘shouldn’t have won’, I’ve seen teams go on a run – using Morton as an example.“I think that’s 15 unbeaten, and earlier in the season everyone was calling for Dougie Imrie’s head and they had no squad [due to injuries].“The league changes so quickly, it’s important that we try to get a level of consistency from now until the end of the season, and try to build a bit of momentum.“Hopefully we do that, with the busy fixtures that we’ve got coming up, and we can prepare in the right direction.“So far we’ve done OK, but it’s not finished.

I’ve got aspirations that I want to get the club as close as I can to the play-offs and I think that’s an achievable target.“We’ve got a game in hand, and if we win that we’re potentially four or five points off of fourth spot, which in football terms is two wins or a win