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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Paul Thomson

Partick Thistle v Airdrie: Ian Murray labels Jags "heavy favourites" in Scottish Cup tie as skipper Fordyce eyes upset

Ian Murray hopes his Diamonds can mark the lifting of crowd restrictions with a memorable Scottish Cup win at Partick Thistle this weekend.

And he insists all the pressure will be on the Jags for the fourth round tie with the Championships side “heavy favourites”.

Murray’s men go into the Firhill clash off the back of five straight wins in League One, despite struggling with a number of Covid absences in recent weeks, including the manager.

That recent success does give Murray hope of pulling off a cup shock and he says it would be the perfect tonic for fans, who have missed out lately due to crowds being limited to 500 spectators amid Covid restrictions.

Murray, who side lost all three meetings last term as the Jags claimed the League One title, said: “It’s a fantastic occasion for us to be in this round again.

”It will be Thistle’s first home game since the restrictions were lifted so I’m sure they will get a good crowd in.

“Hopefully we take a good support because it’s not too far down the road, and we can go there and give a good account of ourselves against a very good Championship side.

“We go into that with no pressure.

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“Go and enjoy the day and the occasion.

“But in football we know you only really enjoy the day if you do well.

“We battled last year against them in League One and we came up a little bit short, which was expected because they had bigger armoury to work with than us.

”But we go there with no pressure.

“The pressure is all on Thistle and that’s not to make it difficult for them.

“I’m pretty sure they will think they are heavy favourites for it as well.

“We go there believing we can win it though.

Airdrie boss Ian Murray (Mark Scates/SNS Group)

“That’s why you play football.

“You take to the pitch believing you can get a result and hopefully we can do that for our supporters.”

Skipper Callum Fordyce echoed the thoughts of his manager and believes the Diamonds' recent run will earn them more respect from opponents.

The defender said: "Partick are the higher team so we are going there like it's a free hit.

"But we firmly believe we've got enough in that dressing room that we can challenge any team.

Airdrie captain Callum Fordyce (SNS Group)

"It doesn't matter who it is, we believe that so we just need to go there and put on a performance.

"Some of our play is really good.

"We maybe don't get the respect we are due from some teams but I think people who come to our games now are realising we are a right good passing side.

"Some of the stuff we play - and some of the goals we've scored - are very good.

"Hopefully that continues."

Kick-off at Firhill on Saturday is 3pm.

Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.

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