Airdrie vs Dumbarton preview - New-boys set for Airdrie debuts

Posted Tuesday, February 01, 2011 by PA

New signings Keiron Stallard and Stephen McKeown are in contention for Airdrie's clash with Dumbarton.

Defender Stallard is added to the squad following the completion of his loan move from Falkirk and midfielder McKeown could feature after re-signing three years after leaving the club.

The creative Jamie Stevenson and attacker Scott Gemmill will face fitness tests as manager Jimmy Boyle looks for an improvement following disappointing performances against Stenhousemuir and Morton in their last two outings.

Boyle said: "A win in this game starts making our home record look better and opens up a reasonable gap between the sides in the table.

"We were disappointing in our last couple of games but hopefully we have that out of our systems now."

Bottom-of-the-table Dumbarton will be without Martin McNiff.

The midfielder is suspended following his red card against Brechin at the weekend with full-back James Creaney and midfielder Andy Geggan both likely to miss their second game in a row through injury.

Sons manager Alan Adamson may give a starting debut to left-sided midfielder Jordan Halsman, who has signed on loan from Motherwell.

Adamson said: "We have slipped back a wee bit in our last couple of games after a great performance against Alloa but there is still half a season to go and we are by no means out of things."