Airdrie will use play-off heartache as 'fuel' for next season, says star

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Mason Hancock says Airdrie will use their play-off disappointment as ‘fuel’ for next season.The English defender says Airdrie proved a lot of people wrong this season by coming up from League One and ripping through the Championship to reach the Premiership play-offs.That came to an end in the quarter-finals, as a Brian Graham double sent Partick Thistle in the semi-final against Raith Rovers in a 4-3 aggregate, despite Arron Lyall bagging a late strike, while Callum Fordyce hit the bar late on.Hancock, 21, says Airdrie leave Firhill with their heads held high.He said: “It was always going to be a battle.“We had them pinned back on Tuesday and I think we had them pinned back by the end of the game today.“That’s just how it’s going to be, when you’re chasing the game.“But what a season it has been!

A lot of people wrote us off at the beginning of the season and look where we are now.“We got to the play-offs, and we’ll use that as fuel for next season.“It’s a massive achievement to get to the play-offs.“If you look at the average age of the squad, by far probably the lowest in the league, you look at a boy like me, 21-years-old, and I see myself as probably one of the more experienced players in this group.“I’m gutted for the team, but I can’t express enough how much we’ll use it as fuel for next season, and surprise a few more faces next season.”Hancock knows Graham was offside at Thistle’s first goal, but says Airdrie didn’t react to the goal in time.He said: “We’ve seen that one back on camera and it is offside.

These things are going to happen, and it’s how you react and we didn’t get too much of a reaction towards the end of the first half.“The early goal in the second half, you think it kills us off, but we showed