Dunoon native, Lewis Strapp, has found his latest club after leaving Finnish side SJK at the conclusion of their season.
The left back has pitched up at the Scottish Championship’s basement side, Airdrieonians, vying to get game time under Rhys McCabe’s stewardship for the latter half of the season.
The Diamonds have had a rough season so far, sitting bottom of the Championship with only six points and one win to their name, but Strapp could earn valuable game time as the Lanarkshire side aim to achieve the great escape.
On the move, Strapp said: “There were a few teams at the time interested, but it just seemed like the right decision to go there.
Obviously, the position in the league, people will look at that and think ‘why’s he done that?’ but when I’m in the building I can see the team shouldn’t be in that position – they’ve got lots of potential, technically this is better than where I’ve been before.”
Two of Airdrie’s technicians are fellow Ton youth academy graduates, and the full back is hopeful that those prior connections with McGregor and McGrattan can help ease his transition back into Scottish football: “We’ve got the three Lewis’ that have ended up here, it’s great to be in with them again and it’s nice to have familiar faces when you go into a building.
“It’ll be nice because I can bounce off of them and they know what I can bring.”
Despite enjoying his time in Finland, Strapp found himself missing the Scottish football culture, which he said was a driving factor in returning home: “I went out there with my eyes open.
“I just thought not many boys get the opportunity to go abroad and play football, so I was quite lucky to get the chance.
“But when I was out there I missed the way the game is back home.
“The football was good, the manager was brilliant, there was a great energy around the place, but I missed the passionate side from back home.
“A lot of people write off football here, but over there football isn’t their first sport – it snows there for half of the year, so they’re all into skiing and ice hockey, whereas here in Scotland – no matter where you are – everybody supports a football team.”
Now he is back in Scotland, Strapp is hoping he can garner that passion from the Diamonds fans to inspire an unbeaten run similar to Morton’s last season after his return to the club.
He added: “Obviously Dunfermline are a good few points ahead, but the main aim is to win games.
Even if we don’t catch them – which we definitely can do – we still need to win games of football and there’s still people we need to prove wrong – for everybody, not just for me, but for all the boys in the team.
“I look at the team, and I look at the games that they’ve been playing and a lot of the time there’s only a goal in it.
“I’ve watched their last few games and I think it’s just a case of reading the game a bit better and having that experience to kill the game when you’re under pressure.”
Strapp’s debut could come this weekend, January 11, as Airdrieonians travel to title challengers Livingston in the league.
