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Murray: Diamonds legend Coyle can help close gap
Airdrie will turn to Diamonds legend Owen Coyle to boost their League One flag push.
Gaffer Ian Murray wants the club legend – new boss of Queen’s Park – to do his side a favour and shoot down title rivals Cove on Sunday. Diamonds trail the leaders by five points but Murray remains optimistic about his men’s title chances.
The New Broomfield side came agonisingly close to closing the gap to two points at the weekend.
But Fraser Fyvie’s stoppagetime screamer earned Cove a last-gasp draw, cancelling out Gabby Mcgill’s opener.
Fyvie’s late show gives Murray’s men a mountain to climb and they’ll need other teams to take points off Cove.
So this weekend gives them an excellent chance to turn the screw.
Murray’s men face East Fife on Saturday, while Cove don’t play Coyle’s Spiders until 24 hours later.
Coyle had four spells as a free-scoring striker with Diamonds and was also an assistant coach. The Republic of Ireland cap has vast experience, having bossed St Johnstone, Bolton and Wigan.
Now Diamonds hope that experience stands Spiders in good stead against Cove. Coyle was in the dugout on Saturday to guide them to a 1-0 win over Clyde.
A win for Airdrie at the weekend would have cut the gap to two points and Murray said: “We are hoping Owen gives Queen’s Park a bounce. I know they won on Saturday and we’ll hope that keeps going.
“I’m always an optimist in terms of these things. Until it’s mathematically impossible we will keep pushing for that top spot.
“I’ve seen it happen before and in every league in the world it happens, pressure gets to people. It’s human nature.
“We know we are in the play-offs whatever happens. Cove have taken so many plaudits this season but we are just as good as them. We’ve known that for a long time.
“We’ve gone under the radar a wee bit and that’s fine. We are ready for it going to the last day.”
Murray admits Cove’s late leveller was hard to swallow, but he knows his side will shake off that pain in time to face the Fifers.
Airdrie are aiming to extend their 15-game unbeaten run and Murray added: “We will go into Saturday full of confidence.
“The boys took a real kick at the weekend but I couldn’t have asked for any more from them. We are 15 games undefeated with 10 wins but sometimes you have to take your hat off to the opposition.
“Fraser has hit a wonderful strike in a high pressure situation and there’s not a lot you can do about that.
“And 3-1 or 4-1 at half-time would have been a fair reflection of the game. But football literally changes in a blink of an eye.
“We have to dust ourselves down. There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves, we need to move on.”