John Rankin declares Airdrie star winner of goal of the season already after Dundee wonderstrike

Airdrie boss John Rankin reckons Sam Fisher has already won the goal of the season award. The big defender netted a free kick from just inside the opposition half in the 4-2 defea t at Dundee. The goal put the Diamonds ahead and Rankin admitted he, tongue-in-cheek told the defender to shoot. Rankin confirmed: “Listen, you'll never believe it. “He actually turned around and says to me, ‘Shoot? Nah’. And I looked at my watch and it said 45. I thought, go for it. “I've never seen a better goal live in my life. “And seeing the element of surprise in his face when the ball hit the top corner, I don't think he's ever done anything like that before either. “It was just completely off the cuff when he turned and said that. And probably a bit of tongue-in-cheek from me going, yes. But the rest of the players on the pitch don't believe him. “That’s the first day of the season, 45 minutes in and I don't think you'll see a better goal all season. I think it's that good.” Rankin has just put his team together. He felt Airdrie started well. They went 2-1 up and he was disappointed that his team couldn’t see it out. He also thinks there are plenty of positives to build on for his new-look team. Rankin, who now takes his team to play Clyde on Tuesday, stated: “Result-wise, I'm disappointed. “You come to a Premier League team, you score two goals, albeit one's an absolute wonder strike, but you score two goals and you don't get anything from the game, I'm disappointed. “But when I look at it overall, we only had three players on the pitch that were here last season. “So that's eight new players that have come in. One of them is obviously a trialist. “And you look at how we went and performed and took the information on board that we were asking them to do. “I'm delighted with how far we've come in the space of two and a half weeks. It's promising. There's a lot of potential there. “And again, when I look at the players, they're giving us everything in regards to work ethic, but the commitment to do it for one another, I'm really pleased with. “I think we can do better to stop crosses, stop shots, stop balls coming into the box and get first contact when they come in. “And that's all fundamentals of keeping a clean sheet, but we need to put layers on it. “Don't get me wrong, it's two wonder strikes in their own right with Charlie Reilly and Ethan Hamilton, but I think we've got to do better and get out and stop them. “But again, I look at it, we came to Dundee and for 25 minutes, I thought we were really good.”