Manager on Thursday

10/01/13: JJ - "Airdrie have shown that they are one of those teams who can come up with results every now and then

Jim Jefferies has been offered a one match ban as punishment for being sent to the stand on Boxing Day during the match against Falkirk. He told the larger than usual press corp at the weekly press call that he would re-read the report before making a decision. Still riled by the dismissal which he feels came after only one small moment of dissention, the Pars gaffer has until 1.00pm on Friday to accept or challenge the disciplinary procedure. He said:-

"I don't mind accepting the punishment if it is right but I won't accept that the referee warned me for dissent because there was no dissent. Neil McCann, Brian Potter and Gerry McCabe were all there. The only warning the referee gave me was "stay in your box", I think he repeated it three times. I tried to find out about John Potter's foul and he said "stay in your box".

If the Manager accepts it, he will be serving the ban from the dug out at Saturday's game against Airdrie United. Definitely missing through suspension will be Josh Falkingham and the midfield will be without the services of recent success, Shaun Byrne who is in Cyprus with the Dunfermline Athletic U20s.

Josh has missed only one Pars match this season (against Livingston) and has started in 22 competitive matches since joining from Arbroath at the beginning of the season.

"Josh has had a lot of good performances but over the last four games his high standards that we saw at the beginning of the season are back. He will be a big miss, we know that but we are still pretty strong in the middle of the park.

"Shaun's trip to Cyprus is SFA backed and it would cost the Club money they can't afford at the moment to withdraw him. That's the sad part but if that's the case we just need to accept that he was going anyway. It will be a good experience for him and we will just have to do without him for a couple of games. If we pick up a few injuries on Saturday I would do everything I can to get him back.

"Husband and Cardle didn't take part last Saturday. Thomson has got over his court case now and will be in a better frame of mind now. Craig Dargo and Andy Geggan can play in there so we have enough to cover us at the moment."

Only real selection doubt is Jordan McMillan who picked up a knock on his knee against Dumbarton and had to be withdrawn at half time. The Club Captain has not trained this week and will be treated right up to the last minute. Ryan Wallace trained but felt a knock that caused him to lay off it for a while but he is expected to be fit.

Airdrie United are only just above the bottom club, Dumbarton but JJ knows that no team in the First Division can be faced lightly:-

"Who would have thought Morton would have dropped points to Cowdenbeath and Airdrie recently drew with Partick Thistle. There are no easy games, it is about how you approach them. Who would have thought that Dumbarton would have beaten Falkirk and Morton?

"You cannot take any game for granted here. There is not a lot between the teams in this league and at the bottom Dumbarton's revival is starting to give themselves a chance of staying up. That means that Airdrie and Cowdenbeath have to look over their shoulder. They are going to improve and put more effort in.

"Airdrie have shown that they are one of those teams who can come up with results every now and then. We will need to make sure that we are well prepared and treat the game as if we are playing a top of the league team. It will only be an easy game if we make it an easy game in terms of us playing as well as we can and giving Airdrie a lot of work to do.

"The last time we played them, particularly in the second half we were excellent. We have played a couple of teams three times before we have played Airdrie twice but maybe the new league set up will do something about that!"