Preview: Airdrieonians vs. Hearts - prediction, team news, lineups

The hosts have already progresses past top-flight opposition in this competition, beating St Johnstone in the previous round, while their visitors reached this stage by scraping past The Spartans.

Match preview

Aidrieonians will go in search of a first Scottish Cup quarter-final place in their history on Sunday, having already progressed through two rounds of this year's competition after dropping out early last time around.

Having enjoyed a climb up to Scotland's second tier this term and adjusted impressively, the Diamonds have also impressed on the cup front, kicking off in the third round away at Stranraer and progressing with a 1-0 victory thanks to Calum Gallagher's first-half goal.

That set up a tougher fourth-round tie at home to Premiership outfit St Johnstone in January, and Rhys McCabe's side defied the odds to again come out on top in a tight encounter, with Nikolay Todorov's goal making the only difference in another 1-0 victory to punch his side's ticket into the round of 16.

On the back of that impressive triumph, the Diamonds played out a 1-1 draw with Partick Thistle to stretch an unbeaten run to six matches, before most recently prevailing away at Raith Rovers in a Scottish Challenge Cup semi-final tie last weekend, with Todorov again netted the only goal to see his side through.

Now still competing on all fronts in the midst of a seven-match unbeaten streak having only conceded once along the way, Airdrieonians will set out to pull off another upset on Sunday and further extend their impressive run on home turf.

They arguably face their toughest test yet, though, as the visitors arrive in the midst of a fine run of their own with their sights set on the latter stages of the Scottish Cup.

In their bid to win the domestic competition for the first time since 2012, having also fallen in the final two seasons ago, Hearts entered this year's edition in the fourth round with a trip to fourth-tier The Spartans.

Steven Naismith's men were certainly not convincing in that tie, as it looked set to end level at a goal apiece with Kenneth Vargas's opener cancelled out by a James Craigen leveller, but Frankie Kent would eventually spare the Edinburgh outfit's blushes with a 90th-minute winner.

Though not as dominant as they would have hoped, that 2-1 victory does form part of a 10-match unbeaten run for the Jam Tarts, with only one draw coming in that streak, and they head into the weekend on the back of six straight victories, moving 12 points clear in third place in the Scottish Premiership as a result.

With plenty of momentum on their side following a pair of triumphs over Dundee, a three-point haul against Aberdeen and most recently a 1-0 win away at St Johnstone in midweek thanks to Lawrence Shankland's second-half goal, Hearts turn their focus to the weekend with the aim of continuing to build on an impressive campaign and seeing off second-tier opposition to reach the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

Airdrieonians Scottish Cup form:

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Airdrieonians form (all competitions):

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Hearts Scottish Cup form:

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Team News

Airdrieonians are bound to field a similar starting XI to the ones that featured in the win over St Johnstone in the previous round and their 1-0 triumph over Raith Rovers last time out, with Craig Watson, Callum Fordyce and Mason Hancock bound to join player-manager Rhys McCabe in an unchanged back four.

Calum Gallagher will fight to come back into the attack from the start, after settling for a substitute appearance last time out, having netted a team-high tally of nine goals so far this term, although Nikolay Todorov should again get the nod at the tip of a 4-2-3-1 shape, having scored eight goals of his own including the decisive goals against Raith Rovers and St Johnstone.

With their sights set on the quarter-finals, Hearts will likely travel with a full-strength starting XI on Sunday, aside from the possible resting of talismanic forward Lawrence Shankland who leads their scoring charts with 22 goals across all competitions.

In his place, Kyosuke Tagawa may come in to lead the line with Alan Forrest and Kenneth Vargas offering support from the wings, while new Charlton Athletic loanee Scott Fraser should again start in the middle of the supporting trio.

Cameron Devlin and Jorge Grant will both fight for starting spots after Beni Baningime and Calem Nieuwenhof were preferred in midfield against St Johnstone, while Craig Halkett will hope to return at the heart of the back four.

Airdrieonians possible starting lineup:

Rae; Watson, McCabe, Fordyce, Hancock; McMaster, Telfer; McGregor, McStravick, Frizzell; Todorov

Hearts possible starting lineup:

Gordon; Lembikisa, Halkett, Kent, Cochrane; Baningime, Devlin; Vargas, Fraser, Forrest; Tagawa

We say: Airdrieonians 0-2 Hearts

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