Gartcairn boss demands winning run from his side in second half of the season

Mick Dunlop expects his Gartcairn side to go on a run in the second half of the season that takes them up the West of Scotland Premier League.

After 15 games the Airdrie club are sitting ninth in the table, 14 points off leaders Clydebank, but with one game in hand.

Last Friday night’s 1-0 defeat at home to Cumnock was a bit of a setback, but as they prepare to start 2024 away to Largs on Saturday, Dunlop hopes they can put wins together to climb the table.

“We have 15 league games to go and we want to try and push on and win as many as we can,” he said.

“If we win our game in hand it can put us up the league.

“We went on a run from bottom and got to fourth there, a few weeks ago, which is the highest we’ve been.

“It’s difficult to gauge exactly where you’re at, in a league that’s this tight, with some teams behind due to cup games and things like that.

“It gives us every opportunity to finish as high up the league as possible, if we can go on a right good run, which I’m expecting us to do.

“I don’t have a crystal ball, I don’t know how high that’s going to be, but that is going to be our aim.”

Dunlop won’t be chasing players in January as he is happy with recent business, but says he’s always looking.

He said “I think we’ve managed to get a lot of good business done in the previous two or three months.

“There were quite a few players we were trying to get in the summer, we weren’t able to get them, and they went to other teams, so we missed out on a lot of our targets.

“At the start of the season we had injuries and things like that, but from September onwards we managed to get quite a lot of good business done.

“For me, now, the squad is pretty strong. There are maybe one or two areas where I’m looking to strengthen,