St Johnstone continue title push in Airdrie – watch on BBC

Airdrieonians took plus points from their Scottish Cup performance despite defeat by St Mirren and will be aiming to keep those positives in mind for another tough assignment at home to Championship leaders St Johnstone.

The Diamonds can consider themselves unlucky to have lost out to those other Saints from the Premiership in extra time, the sense of injustice compounded by missing out on what many observers felt was a stonewall penalty.

Aaron Taylor-Sinclair’s side will hope accentuating the positives will help propel them through their next two matches, which are against the top two sides in the division.

Next week they face Partick Thistle in Glasgow, with the Firhill side still in dogged pursuit of the pacesetters from Perth.

St Johnstone had their Challenge Cup quarter-final postponed on Tuesday for a third time. That fixture has now been moved to the Falkirk Stadium in the hope that an artificial surface is the answer.

Simo Valakari’s side have now had a couple of weeks of enforced rest since their dramatic 2-2 draw with Thistle on 30 January and will champing at the bit to put some pressure on Thistle, who are away to Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday.

Josh Fowler made his debut in the second half against the Jags and the 24-year-old striker will be hoping to add to the 19 goals he scored for Queen’s Park this term.

Fellow forward Alfie Agyeman, recently arrived on loan from Falkirk, is already off the mark as Saints look to fill an Adama Sidibeh-shaped hole in their attack.

Sidibeh, now at Stockport County, scored all the goals in a 3-0 win over Airdrieonians at McDiarmid Park in November, while there was a 2-1 success for Saints in North Lanarkshire in September.

Airdrieonians are third bottom and have plenty to do if they are to allay relegation anxiety.

However, there is an upbeat feel around the club since Taylor-Sinclair took the reins and they go into this fixture with plenty of resolve and hope after pushing St Mirren all the way.