AHEAD of a winner-takes-all bout at Cappielow, Dunoon’s Lewis Strapp was recognised for his efforts in a Diamonds jersey.
The former Morton man has had a stellar season for Airdrieonians, racking up the Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards.
The accolades were presented to the left-back after Airdrie’s crucial comeback win over Ayr United last weekend, which saw them triumph 2-1 with two late second-half goals to keep their hopes of avoiding the drop to the last day.
He told this newspaper: It’s a nice honour and I’m very grateful to the boys and the fans for voting for me.
I think it shows the hard work that we’ve all put in through the season, but for myself as well it’s nice to be recognised. It’s been an up-and-down season, there’s been a lot of lows and a lot of highs, and to get these awards is always nice, but we’ve got everything to do on Friday night to be able to enjoy it.
Strapp has had a topsy-turvy start to life at Airdrie, with the club only avoiding relegation thanks to a Hamilton points deduction last season, and his pre-season was hampered by an injury to his shoulder which required an operation.
But eventually the Cowal native managed to recover and fight his way back into the team, becoming an integral part of the squad as the Lanarkshire side eventually gained momentum under their third manager of the season, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair.
Strapp said: I missed a lot of pre-season doing shoulder rehab, so I was just glad to get back into the team and have no issues with that.
Obviously, Rhys McCabe leaving at the start of the year got us a bit uneasy and then with Danny Lennon coming in, we just didn’t hit the ground running with him. So the start of the season was a bit up in the air, everyone all over the place, but once we settled into it you could see why everyone says to us you’re a right good team, but we’ve maybe not been clinical enough and not put people to the sword in games that we’ve really dominated.
Everyone will say it’s a really bad season, but if you look at it, we’re only a few results off being up there in that middle pack.
And Strapp pointed to the continuity of Taylor-Sinclair’s appointment as a driving factor for their success in the second half of the season, adding: A lot of the boys have had him for a few years now, he was Rhys’ assistant and when Danny Lennon came in he was assistant as well, so everybody likes the gaffer and knows his style of play.
When he came in it was a fresh start for everyone, everyone knew what we needed to do, and it was back to the way the boys wanted to play—that’s why I think we started playing a lot better.
It’s good to see, this is his first manager role so as much as it’s for us on Friday night, it’s also for him.
With a trip to former club Greenock Morton on the horizon, and both clubs’ Championship status riding on the game, Strapp is all too aware of his objective.
On the winner-takes-all matchup, he said: We know what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to win the game, which is maybe a position we’d have bitten your hand off for a month or two ago. If you were to say it would come down to this game I think we’d all have taken that.
It’s a funny one, we just need to win the game, no question, because we have a chance of being relegated.
Only two points separate the sides ahead of the final game of the season, with Morton occupying eighth place on 37 points, Airdrie in ninth on 35 and Ross County bottom on 34, meaning the goal of Championship survival is attainable for all three teams.
However, a draw would do Airdrie no good, with Morton only requiring a draw to avoid relegation—through play-offs or otherwise—altogether.
Strapp added: It’s kind of good for us, we’ve got nothing to lose going into this game.
There’s no going about it drawing or losing, we just have to go all out and win the game. It’s a good position to be in, knowing that’s what you have to do rather than holding on to a draw.
We’re just hoping on Friday we can all turn up. Everybody will be giving 100%, guaranteed, there’ll be no questions asked about people’s commitment.
But it’s obviously a tough place to go, I used to be there for years and I know they can make it into a fortress, but it’s a one-off game—a cup final—and hopefully we can get the three points and stay in the Championship.
Kick-off is 7.45pm at Cappielow, with a large crowd expected from both sets of supporters.
