Innes Murray wants to get in on the goal action for Airdrie - and knows that this weekend’s meeting with East Fife would be the perfect time to start.

 

The 22-year-old joined on loan from Hibernian in January, and has put in some impressive performances in the Diamond already.

 

Ahead of Saturday’s crunch tie against East Fife, Murray is enjoying life at the Penny Cars Stadium.

 

“It’s been good to get some competitive minutes in the first team. I’ve played every week so far, and I’ve been really enjoying it.

 

“It’s much more physical and more competitive playing for league points, but it’s massive for this club to be pushing for promotion so that’s the aim for us.”

 

That promotion bid suffered a slight knock last weekend as the Diamonds lost to Montrose at Links Park, with Graham Webster scoring the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.

 

Murray says it was a bad day at the office.

 

“It was a poor game for us. There was nothing in it at all, but they got the penalty in the first half and we didn’t create enough to get back at them.

 

“Luckily results elsewhere meant that the defeat didn’t really change too much for us.”

 

Although he has yet to get on the scoresheet, Murray has gone close from dead-ball situations on a number of occasions. The midfielder hopes to hit the net sooner rather than later.

 

“We’ve been working on set plays a lot, and although I had some disappointing ones at Montrose, that’s something I’m usually quite good with.

 

“Hopefully there are goals to come from me before the end of the season - assists as well!”

 

Third meet fourth as Darren Young’s side visit on Saturday, with last week’s results meaning that the sides are now level on points with a single goal edging Airdrie ahead.

 

There have been three high-scoring meetings between the sides already this season.

 

Aaron Dunsmore and Scott Agnew added to goals from ex-Diamonds Ross Davidson and Liam Watt at Bayview in August, with Calum Gallagher grabbing a stoppage-time consolation.

 

The Diamonds got revenge at home in November, Gallagher and Ally Roy scoring either side of a Dale Carrick double to give Airdrie a 4-0 win.

 

And the points were shared at Bayview in January as Gallagher’s double was equalled by strikes from Dunsmore and Craig Watson.

 

Innes understands the importance of the fourth and final regular-season meeting between the Diamonds and the Fifers.

 

“It’s another big game for us. We’re level on points now so the win would be huge for either team. Hopefully we can get it and start to push away.

 

“We’ve been keeping it tight at the back, so we need to continue that. Elsewhere we just need to create more opportunities and score goals - we had been doing that before last weekend, so we know we can get back to it.”

 

Airdrie manager Ian Murray would love to see a second home win for his side.

 

“The table shows that we’ve been very evenly-matched with East Fife over the course of the season.

 

“While I’d be happy with a 1-0 win, a repeat of our previous home performance against them would be fantastic.”

 

The Diamonds boss is still without Adam Eckersley (calf) and Patrick Pyott (knee) for the crunch tie.

 

Referee Colin Steven is in charge of his first Airdrie game this season.

 

The club have made a statement in respect of the recent coronavirus issue.