Assistant boss Declan Gallagher admits Airdrie fans were right to boo the side off during both halves of last week's defeat to Ross County - but insisted it must act as a wake-up call.
The Diamonds face East Fife today off the back of a painful 3-1 defeat to the Staggies at home last week and a 4-0 humbling away to Hamilton Accies the previous week.
Fans' reaction justified
The New Broomfield faithful let their feelings be known last weekend with a smattering of boos coming from the home support at the end of both halves.
Gaffer John Rankin has had to rebuild the squad from scratch this summer and the team is packed full of young players, with player/assistant Gallagher one of the few to have played at a high level.
But asked if the reaction from the Airdrie fans so far has been harsh on a new squad still trying to gel, the former Scotland international told Lanarkshire Live Sport: "I don't think that is harsh. At the end of the day, they pay their money to come and watch us and if we show up and give them a performance like we did in the first 45 minutes last Saturday then they are very much justified in booing us off the park.
"There was no fight, no grit, no ugly side of the game being shown that would get the fans backing you, like we showed against East Kilbride a couple of weeks ago when the fans really got behind us and it felt like we had a 12th man in that game.
"So we have to give them something to cheer about."
The boos are justified because we were coming off to a defeat against one of our rivals at home, so I absolutely get it.
Young squad learning curve
Gallagher himself was making his league debut in the game and was brought in to try and shore up the backline with some badly needed experience within the Diamonds' young squad.
Results so far have seen Airdrie lose two and draw two, leaving them second from bottom in League One.
But he disputed the suggestion that the squad was still needing time to get to grips with the system under boss John Rankin, which has seen the team regularly line-up in a 4-1-2-1-2 formation.
Gallagher added: "I don't think it is the system, I think at the end of the day it is a man for man game and I think the boys just need to get up to the pace of League One football.
"As you can see, we are a relatively young squad and a lot of these boys haven't played at this kind of level. A lot of them are used to youth football and don't really realise what the men's game is yet.
"There has been a real wake-up call from the two teams in the league we would be looking to compete with the most.
"Hamilton and Ross County have definitely shown our young squad what it is like.
"But I think the second half last Saturday showed they have got a bit of bravery and that bit between the teeth where they can come out and move the ball the way we want them to do.
"We showed that for about 20-25 minutes in the second half.
"Losing another goal from a set-piece is not ideal and that is something we will need to look at as a backroom staff to try and stop these set-piece goals from happening.
"At the end of the day, there is a wee bit of encouragement, but I know it is not great for the fans coming out and spending their hard-earned money to watch their team get beat.
"Trust me, there is nobody hurting more than us in that dressing room."
