Ironically, Airdrie United provide the opposition for the Dingwall club in the league — six days after the two teams played out an enthralling Challenge Cup final that the Diamonds won by virtue of a penalty shoot-out.

Revenge for this defeat could be considered a motivating factor for County tomorrow, although manager Adams only wants his players to concentrate on gaining a victory in North Lanarkshire.

"The cup final has gone now — it's in the past," he stated. "You can't change what's happened, but you can influence the future.

"It is perhaps slightly ironic that we play Airdrie United again less than a week after playing them in the Challenge Cup final, although I also think it's a good game for us to get back into league action.

"After the cup final defeat, we came in and trained on Monday and simply set about doing everything normally again.

"The important thing is that we put the cup final behind us because three points on Saturday could possibly lift us up to sixth in the table, so that has to be our aim."

County's bid to win a second Challenge Cup in the space of two years might have ended in the cruelest fashion possible with a shoot-out defeat, but Adams maintains that plenty of positives can be garnered from last Sunday's loss.

"At 1-0 in front we were well on top and I think if we had of scored a second then we would have gone on to win the game," he added. "However, we more than contributed to a fantastic game and there were certainly more positives to take out of it than negatives, so hopefully we can build on all the good things which we did."

Tomorrow's encounter will be the fourth time County and Airdrie have faced each other this season with United holding the upper hand, winning two, albeit both in cup competitions.

All three previous games this season, however, have been close affairs, although Adams is anticipating Airdrie possibly fielding a more attacking line-up given that they are the home side.

"I think they might go 4-4-2 with Simon Lynch partnering Paul Di Giacomo up front rather than the 4-1-4-1 formation they adopted last weekend," he said.

"Airdrie are a hard working side and they certainly don't make it easy for you, but we've done well against them this season and we'll look to continue that on Saturday."

Adams has doubts surrounding the fitness of both goalkeeper Derek Soutar and Andy Dowie, although Paul Lawson and top scorer Steven Craig are definitely out.

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