Ian Murray insists Airdrie turned in their best performance of the season so far to see off Clyde in Saturday’s Lanarkshire derby.
The Diamonds dazzled the Bully Wee at New Broomfield to make it three wins on the spin in League One, although the narrow 2-1 scoreline didn’t reflect the performance as the hosts bossed their opponents.
Callum Smith put Airdrie ahead after 10 minutes when he volleyed home at the back post from a Craig Watson cross, before David Goodwillie levelled things up from the penalty spot in 35 minutes after Josh Kerr had been penalised for a foul on Rob Jones.
But the Diamonds were dominant and got their rewards in 57 minutes when Calum Gallagher netted his fourth goal of the season from close range, after good work from Dylan Easton.
And Murray said: “Slowly but surely we’ve been turning our performances into wins and I think the football that we’ve played in the main this season has been excellent.
“But Saturday was certainly the best we’ve been.
“We’ve been playing pretty good stuff in most games this season, apart from the opening game [against Montrose] that gave us a bit of food for thought.
“Down at Dumbarton we dominated the game for 70 minutes and we did the same against Falkirk, but lapses in concentration cost us.
“Saturday was really impressive.
“The scoreline looks close and anything can happen when a game is so tight. In the blink of an eye a decision or a deflection can knock you back.
“But the way we passed the ball, our movement off the ball, the way we pressed really high - we never really gave Clyde much of an opportunity.
“We were very comfortable in the game.”
It leaves Airdrie fourth in the table after the first quarter, three points off joint-leaders Queen’s Park and Cove Rangers and level with third place Falkirk on 14 points.
Murray added: “When we look at the first three games and only picking up one point, to be where we are right now is very satisfying, particularly when you look at the three teams above.
“We can look at it as a positive or a negative, but Cove beat us, Falkirk beat us and we drew with Queens, so it tells me that our form outside those top sides is better and hopefully we keep going.
“We also have two of those teams [Cove and Queens] at home in the second quarter.
“But there’s a long way to go. All teams will have their sob stories, but when I look at the two points we dropped at Dumbarton and the point at Cove, we could probably be sitting in a higher position.”
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