After finding out that his team had been given a relegation lifeline, the Diamonds player-boss watched as his team put up a lacklustre performance.
Rhys McCabe, the player-boss for Airdrie, maintains that he is to blame for their loss to Morton and that their preparation for the match was unaffected by Hamilton’s 15-point deduction, which gave them a relegation lifeline.
As of right now, the Diamonds appear bound for a relegation play-off berth after Tom Adeloye’s first-half goal for Morton caused a 1-0 loss. Accies was relegated today, subject to an appeal of their sentence for repeated SPFL violations.
The result leaves Airdrie going into their final two games six points adrift of Queen’s Park and Dunfermline, who sit above them on 34 points and with vastly superior goal difference tallies, and seven clear of Accies.
The club were catapulted out of bottom spot thanks to the Accies ruling but McCabe’s side produced a lacklustre performance, as they suffered a 20th defeat of the Championship campaign.
And he said: “It was my fault today and I’ve got to hold my hands up.
responsibility and that on the chin, we just need to go and dust ourselves down.
“If we go and score the first goal in that game, it would maybe have changed our momentum. But they scored the first goal and they managed the game well after that.
“I’m certainly not going to use it [Hamilton’s plight] as an excuse or a positive. My job as a manager is to focus on ourselves and that’s what we’ll do.
“I’m not going to comment on the 15-point deduction because I don’t know enough about it.
“I could say something now and something could change two weeks later. When I heard about it, it was a shock and we didn’t expect it, but it is not something we’ve been itching to happen or thinking was going to happen.
“From our point of view it is certainly a wee boost in confidence, but I certainly don’t want clubs to be going through that.
“I know a lot of the Hamilton players, I know John Rankin and it will be difficult for them. I don’t envy them in the position they are in right now, but I am not going to comment on something that could still grow arms and legs.
“The preparation wasn’t any different. We’ve just had to take care of ourselves. What goes on outside of us, is none of our business and I don’t know enough about it.
“It hasn’t affected me but if it has affected some of the boys, then so be it. We’ve been good recently and that is the frustrating thing. No disrespect to Morton, but we’ve been better against teams higher up in the division and put in really good performances.
“We’ve got two big games left and we’ll be looking to get maximum points.”
Sam Murdoch, the 17-year-old custodian for Morton, was seldom troubled by Airdrie, but they did had a penalty appeal denied in the first half when striker Ben Wilson raced onto a long ball into the area and seemed to be hauled down by Jack Baird.
McCabe too thought his side had been unfairly treated.
“I have not witnessed it return, but I spoke with Ben, and he is certain that it is a penalty because he gets in the way of the ball and the man,” he continued. On the pitch, it appeared to be a penalty, but I’m not sure.
