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Daily Record
Sport
Ben Banks

Airdrie manager hails relentless Diamonds after play-off spot secured as he sends message to 'doubters'

Airdrie manager Ian Murray insists his side have to enjoy a positive moment after they booked a promotion play-off spot and continued to push for the League One title against Queen's Park.

Callum Smith netted a fine first half strike and Dylan Easton's half-volley moments before the interval wrapped things up for the Diamonds in a 2-0 win over Queen's Park.

It made it 14 games without a loss but Cove Rangers' win over Montrose means they still sit in second and five points off the summit. At the very least, they will contest the promotion play-off matches like last season.

A huge game at the Excelsior Stadium awaits next week as Cove come to town but Murray was pleased with how they prepared for the crucial clash.

He said: "The boys have done really well and we played some really nice stuff. There were times where we had to dig it out a bit but we scored two great goals.

"I would have loved to have added to the scoreline but I can't speak highly enough of the players, cementing that play-off spot in March. It's fantastic.

"It's easy for me to tell them what to do but they are the ones implementing it. They deserve so much credit."

Smith's goal came from outside the box while Easton's hit against the Spiders arrowed straight into the top corner. It's not just beating teams which pleases Murray, it's how they are doing it.

The Diamonds boss added: "We are playing some really nice stuff. They know what they are doing off the ball as well. We are well-drilled.

"All the boys have contributed and it's been a good season so far, but that's just so far. We will enjoy this moment and look forward to our last six games.

"We have to embrace next week's match. It's difficult to win games in this league so this is fantastic. We are showing everybody what we can do.

"We had a lot of doubters at the start of the season - could we do it? We had a lot of doubters at Christmas - could we keep this up?

"We are still going to have doubters as people have had Cove winning this league around 10 weeks ago. We take this week and this moment to be really positive."

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