Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
WE MUST HIT THE GROUND RUNNING
Airdrie boss wants solid start
Ian Murray has warned his Airdrie squad there is no room for error this season as the club returned to training on Saturday.
The Diamonds gaffer was left frustrated by inconsistent form last season, which saw them in a play- off slot when the season came to a halt due to Covid-19, and he believes his side should have topped League One.
Murray is pleased with their business in the transfer market over the summer, bringing in names like Thomas Robert and Eoghan Stokes, who joined their new team-mates at New Broomfield for the first pre-season session.
But with the League One campaign reduced to 27 games, Murray says they need to make a fast start.
He said: “It’s great to have these boys and we do feel that we’ve improved and enhanced the squad, but the proof is in the pudding.
“Once the season starts, the reputations mean nothing, you need to go and do it.
“Raith Rovers went up because they were top after 29 games, and it could easily have been us if we were a little bit more consistent, so there’s no room for error.
“We need to hit the ground running, and make sure the consistency is there right from the start.
“It’s nice to be back, it has been a while, longer than we all anticipated back in March.
“To get everybody back together and get ourselves started is a positive step forward.”
Murray says Airdrie’s failure to reach the Championship will drive him and his players on as they look to kick-off on October 17.
“Raith Rovers were top of the league, they were five points ahead of us, and I have no complaints about them getting the league,” he added, “but our bug bear is that we dropped too many points over the season, like at Dumbarton when we should have won, Stranraer at home twice and Forfar at home.
“These are only four games, but if we had won them we were top of the league and that’s including the fact that Raith beat us three times.
“We weren’t that far away, but we also let ourselves down at times.
“The flip side of that is that I thought we were ready and well equipped for the play-offs, and never losing two games in a row all season put us in a great position going into those games.
“I felt that we had a really strong backbone and were certainly far more ready than we were the year before, but we’ll never know now, so we’ll just have to make sure that this season we’re not even in the play-offs.
“What happened last season is extra motivation for us.
“The league has changed because Raith Rovers and Stranraer have gone out of it and Cove Rangers and Partick Thistle are coming into it, so the dynamics have changed a little bit.
“But in terms of belief, determination and where we think we can finish, it gives us a little bit added edge and a little bit between the teeth.”
They start the league campaign at home to Peterhead but have two Betfred Cup games to play first, with Alloa visiting on October 7, followed by a trip to Stenhousemuir on October 13.