Former Aberdeen defender says Airdrie have given him licence to thrill

Mason Hancock admits he has been given a licence to thrill at Airdrie and is thriving at New Broomfield after joining from Aberdeen earlier in the season.

The young gun has caught the eye with his displays in the Diamond this season and provided a stunning assist for Cammy Ballantyne in Saturday’s entertaining 3-2 defeat to Ayr United, which earned him a man of the match award.

At the goal he set up, Hancock made a trademark run down the left to get onto Adam Frizzell’s cross-field pass, darted to the byline, left his marker for dead with a silky turn and nutmeg before crossing for Ballantyne to fire in an equaliser at the back post for 1-1.

The final result was not the one he wanted, but his showing was further evidence of his confidence and the freedom he has to express himself under Rhys McCabe’s stewardship.

And the 21-year-old Englishman, who has hit the target himself this season with a goal in December’s 2-1 win at Queen’s Park, said: “It is great to add stats to my game.

“I felt like that was something that I needed to improve on when I joined here and I am slowly getting there.

“It is something I didn’t really have in my game before.

“Since I came to Airdrie, I’ve been given a licence to play, get the ball down and attack a man.

“That is credit to Airdrie for letting me come in and do my thing.

“I had three years at Aberdeen and when I moved to Airdrie I heard a lot of good comments about this being a great place to be and it didn’t take me too long to realise that myself.”

He added: “I’m not going to come out and say I do that [turn] in training every day. I’ll be honest, I surprised myself a little bit with it.

“But Cammy was there to get on the end of it on his full starting return, so that was great for