Saints have an opportunity to book themselves a Petrofac Training Cup semi-final spot on Saturday — if they can see off League One Dunfermline at St Mirren Park.

A victory would see Saints record only their second competitive home of the season, and their first since July 25, when they disposed of Berwick Rangers in the first round of the same competition.

Boos echoed around their Paisley home come the full-time whistle of last weekend’s draw with Alloa Athletic, but Murray insists now is the time to repay their followers for their continued support.

He told Gazette Sport: “Saturday gives us an opportunity to get to a semi-final early on in the season so it is a pretty big game for us. Out of all the three ties it is probably the pick of the round.

“The fans are fully entitled to their view. I’m like anyone else, home form is important as fans want to see a winning team.

“The home form in general is no one’s fault bar our own, it’s certainly not the fans that come and watch the team because they want us to win more than anyone else.

“They come here wanting us to win, not wanting us to get beat, so we need to now start repaying them.

“The flak that comes with not winning home games is understandable and acceptable, but we need to turn that round now.” Recent weeks have seen Murray tinker with his starting XI and he chose to adopt a 4-3-3 formation for the visit of Alloa.

The Buddies boss admits he is not yet convinced what his best team is, but believes he is ever closer to finding the perfect formula.

Murray added: “I think in this league it is very difficult to dictate anybody’s best 11. I think most teams chop and change a wee bit but have a core of eight or nine players that play most weeks.

“I think we are still in the stage of still finding out best 11.

“On the flip side we have probably got nine or 10 who we believe are, not automatic choice, but are certainly looking up to speed with the league.

“But we need to find that other one or two as well.” The visit of Allan Johnstone’s Dunfermline now looms large on the horizon, and Murray insists it is the perfect chance to progress.

He continued: “Dunfermline have started well, they’ve done great. I watched them up at Tannadice in the League Cup and they were excellent.

“Like a few other teams they have shown a few blips and some poorer results but overall I think it will be a game they will be relishing like ourselves.

“Once you get to these stages of any competition you want to go and win it and it will be a fantastic opportunity for us to do that.”