St Johnstone won't fancy visiting Airdrie in cup, says Diamonds captain as he eyes scalp

Airdrie captain Adam Frizzell says his side are gunning for another major Premiership scalp when St Johnstone visit in what is a ‘free hit’ Scottish Cup clash this weekend.

Craig Levein brings the Perth Saints to New Broomfield for the fourth round tie, with a resurgence that has taken them up to 10th in the top flight.

However, Airdrie are full of confidence, having bagged fourth spot in the Championship, and are used to taking scalps from Premiership teams, having defeated Dundee, St Mirren and Motherwell in recent years.

Midfielder Frizzell says all the pressure is on the visitors to progress, but that might work in Airdrie’s favour, and he’s eager to get his teeth into the clash.

He said: “St Johnstone have picked up since Craig Levein has come in and it will be a very difficult game, but we’re at home and we’ll take the game to them.

“We’ve won three and drawn one of the last four games against Premiership sides that have come to Airdrie, which is a good stat for us, and we’ll take a bit of confidence from that.

“It’s notoriously not an easy place for teams to come, and we’ll do our best to continue that trend on Saturday.

“I think when it got drawn St Johnstone were probably thinking ‘oh God, here we go’, but we want to make our home ground a fortress and we want teams to think that, coming here.”

St Johnstone haven’t been in action since drawing with Livingston on December 27, while Airdrie beat Raith Rovers 1-0 in their last outing at New Broomfield on January 6, having seen their clash at Dunfermline postponed on Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch.

Frizzell says they’re buzzing at the moment, and keen to make the most of their red-hot form, with three wins on the bounce in a four-game unbeaten run.

He said: