AFTER almost three months on the sidelines, Ayr United club captain Ross Docherty hopes for a return to action on Saturday as his former team Airdrieonians rock up at Somerset Park.

And he is hoping for victory, with just one point out of six taken against his old side so far this season.

But although one more goal will see them hit the 100-goal milestone in all competitions following Saturday's 3-0 home win against East Fife, the midfielder is focused more on the result.

He was set to play for the Under-20s away to Cumnock Juniors in a friendly along with Robbie Crawford last night (Monday) and both players woud be in contention to feature on Saturday if they came through.

Docherty, who has been suffering with a hip injury, said: "Everyone talks about getting the 100th goal and that would be nice. But we are focusing more on the game and making sure we win it. We have not done well against Airdrie, taking just a point in the two games and we must rectify that on Saturday and try to win the game. They always raise their game against us. I hope to available for the weekend. It's been frustrating being out for so long but I have been back training for a couple of weeks. It was a good result on Saturday and we are in touching distance of Raith Rovers. The aim is still to win the league and hopefully we can do that."

Docherty had praise for striker Lawrence Shankland, who scored again on Saturday."

He said: "In the past month Lawrence has been excellent and really has made a difference but he has kept his level up as there's strong competition for places.!

Defender Paddy Boyle was impressed with the weekend display sand said: "We felt really quite comfortable up until the last 15 or 20 minutes. Sometimes you get negative vibes but we have young players and it was good to get a clean sheet and a 3-0 win. We worked hard on the defensive side and it showed. The Airdrie players have good legs and they get about. We will have to keep the ball but it will be a difficult game."

Manager Ian McCall said: "I know we were hoping to get the 100th goal on Saturday to save it hanging over us and Moffat and Shankland had chances but we defended well and wanted to keep a clean sheet. We look forward to the Airdrie game and I am very hopeful that Robbie Crawford will be playing as that could be huge for us. I am still fairly hopeful Ross Docherty will make it but we will have to wait and see."