Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Murray praises his stars after cup win
STENHOUSEMUIR ................................ 0 AIRDRIEONIANS ................................... 2
Ian Murray has hailed Airdrie’s professionalism in seeing off League Two side Stenhousemuir in the Scottish Cup, and was glad they avoided a ‘banana skin’ situation.
The Diamonds were favourites going into the third round tie at Ochilview, and Murray felt it was a difficult place to go to, having lost there in League One previously, so was pleased with how they approached the game.
Murray said: “We approached the game in the right manner, it was a very professional, solid performance.
“I wouldn’t say it was spectacular, but it was a very good game for us in terms of the result, a clean sheet, and getting ourselves into that draw.
“Sometimes these cup ties can be quite fiery and end-to-end, because that’s the nature of the cup, but I felt the game didn’t pose us too many problems.”
Airdrie took the lead through Adam Frizzell in 37 minutes, with Scott Mcgill adding a second to seal the win in 55 minutes.
Having seen senior sides falling to West of Scotland League opposition, Murray says making sure their name was in the fourth-round draw on Monday was priority.
He said: “I’m pretty sure our last league game there we lost 1-0 when they were in League One, so we made it a solid, professional performance, and full credit to the players for doing that.
“There were banana skins all over the place in that competition, and we saw that with a few results at the weekend.
“We managed it very well, we got goals at great times in the game – five or six minutes before half-time and then five to 10 minutes after half-time to kill it, and it just calmed everybody down.
“Even without that, I still felt that we weren’t in any great danger, and again that comes from the players’ approach to the game and also their professionalism throughout.
“I’m really happy, delighted to get back to winning ways, and it’s vitally important, as a club, that we’re in that draw.
“We went out at this stage last season, just before the second lockdown, which was a blow for the club and the team.
“I feel this season that we’ve shown again perhaps a slight bit of progress, in terms of how we approached it, and how we handled being favourites, because Stenhousemuir were on a really good run.”