Diamonds get back on track

Connell’s goal a boost ahead of Clyde clash

Andy Mcgilvray Ian Murray says Airdrie are back in the League One title hunt after their brilliant 1-0 win at Falkirk on Sunday.

Kyle Connell’s 82nd- minute strike sent the points back to North Lanarkshire, shot the Diamonds up to fourth in the table – three points off second-placed Montrose – and set up a “ding-dong” derby cracker at Clyde on Boxing Day.

Murray was delighted with the win and said it was a real shot in the arm for an Airdrie side that were previously on a poor run.

“It’s a huge boost, there’s no getting away from it,” he said. “In this league games are so difficult and tight that any three points can really propel you up the league.

“At the end of the day it is only three points, but the manner in which we gained them was so pleasing, and it puts us back in there,that’s all it does.

“It was a really good performance in terms of our work-rate and application, and the players pretty much carried out the instructions to the letter, which is really hard to do, normally.

“Of course, quality-wise the game wasn’t great but the three points were so vital.

“People talked about the gap that Falkirk could create at the top of the league, but we actually felt it was a chance for ourselves to capitalise and be three points off second place.

“We have had a few poor results so we’re quite happy, and that result is a shot in the arm for us.

“Compared to where we could have been if we had lost the match, it’s a huge boost going into the Christmas period.”

Murray says he had no idea that Connell had struck so late, but said his side did well to see the game – which was pushed back from Saturday due to a floodlight issue at the Falkirk Stadium – through.

“It was a great time to score, and I didn’t realise it was so late, because I was so wrapped up in the game,” said Murray.

“I can’t recall too much about the goal apart fro Josh Kerr heading it, the goalie has made a wonderful save and

I just saw Kyle there stabbing it home, unmarked.

“It was an easy finish for Kyle, but he had to be in the right place at the right time, and in the 82nd minute it doesn’t give Falkirk an awful lot of time to get back into the game.

“At that point you’re thinking the worst- case scenario is that you’re getting out of there with a minimum of a point.

“Being honest, we were actually fairly comfortable, and that’s not being disrespectful to Falkirk, that’s just the feeling I had at the time.”

Airdrie travel to Clyde on Saturday with confidence, having beat them 5-0 back in November, but Murray is wary of the hosts and the nature of League One, following the Bully Wee’s shock win over high-flying Cove Rangers.

He said: “It was a great performance the last time we played them, we were excellent,we beat Clyde 5-0 and that got us going, we started to play really good football.

“Clyde are a good side, they’ve got good players, a good manager and we’ve had some really strange scoring games against them over the last two seasons.

“It’s a tough game, it’s a local derby, they’ve just gone up to Cove Rangers and beat a team who were the secondplaced team at the time, so that does add up to a nice Christmas game that unfortunately the fans won’t be there to see, because it has all the makings of a ding-dong battle.

“It is a good time to get a win like that and we go into it with a lot of confidence, but we also know that this league can bring you back down to earth within a matter of hours.

“It’s very important that we maintain what we’ve done, keep it going, because we go to Clyde, then it’s Dumbarton and Peterhead.

“These are teams that have caused us problems in the past, but also teams that we’ve beat, so we have to be on our guard a little bit.”

Kick-off on Saturday at Broadwood is 3pm.

Pic: John Steven Delight Connell wheels away after his winner