Dundee United loanee Stewart Murdoch attracted by East Fife's heavy fixture pile-up

Stewart Murdoch is a player in need of game time - and knows he'll get it at Bayview.
Stewart Murdoch during his previous spell at East Fife.Stewart Murdoch during his previous spell at East Fife.
Stewart Murdoch during his previous spell at East Fife.

The Dundee United defender sealed a loan move to methil on Monday evening, completed in time for him to start against Arbroath a day later.

Murdoch, who spent a previous spell at Bayview as a youngster, has endured a tough time since the turn of the year through injury and has only recently returned to full-time training with the Tannadice club.

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But now he wants as many match minutes under his belt as possible, and there's no better place in Scotland to do that that with an East Fife side who have a heavy build up of weekend and midweek fixtures to face.

The 28-year-old said: "The next few weeks, it's just a case of play and recover and that's what everybody wants to do; play games.

"I've missed six or seven weeks through injury, so the best thing for me was to go to East Fife and play as many games as possible.

"That was a reason why it was a draw, a chance to play as many games as possible and hopefully more games at the end of the season in May.

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"There's an opportunity to play Tuesday and Saturday and get my fitness.

"I could have stayed at Dundee United and got a run out every so often but now I'm 28 I want to be playing football.

"Hopefully I can be involved in as many games as possible."

Murdoch was handed a starting shirt straight away by boss Darren Young and the defender looked assured as part of a Fife defence which had to deal with one of the most dangerous attacks in the league on Tuesday.

He signed early in the week, but took in last weekend's 4-3 defeat to Dumbarton from the stands.

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"It was my first game back and I thought we competed well throughout," said Murdoch.

"We could have maybe put the game away with the penalty late on, but it was positive that we can compete with the team who are running away with the league.

"We'll take that into the next game."