AIRDRIE UTD

Airdrie started the game slowly taking a good ten minutes to change to the above formation to cope with Caley's three pronged attack. The vital battle was on the left of our defence where Woosh Wilson was in direct opposition to Caley's most likely, Barry Wilson. Caley's only dangerous moves all game came down that flank. Otherwise Airdrie battled them all over the park as best as could be hoped. McManus, Stewart and Scott Wilson all looked solid early on and Doc, Marv and Dunn eventually got to grips with the midfield after a torrid opening twenty minutes. Up front though Gow, Vareille and Roberts were never going to get it easy against such a good defence. In our years in Division One guys like Bobby Mann, Stuart McCafferty, Ross Tokely and Stuart Golabek were always solid defenders who all looked capable of playing in the SPL and today was again no exception with McCafferty and Tokely outstanding for them. Mann's passing out of defence too was a major feature for them. Their one weakness though was their lack of mobility. We pumped a few high balls in that were never going to break them down but when we played to Roberts' feet his clever lay offs were helping Gow and Vareille to turn them but to no avail.

Caley dominated early on but really only had a few dangerous corners that McGeown kind of flapped at, and despite us being superior for the last half hour of the first half we really only had on clear cut chance when Varielle ghosted behind Mann, but his attempt to lift the ball over Mark Brown frustratingly clipped the crossbar. Dunn was increasingly dominating things in the first half and was outstanding in the midfield.

Second half Airdrie kept plugging away but the fitness concerns were becoming more apparent. Jerome didn't look right and Roberts was toiling after taking an absolute battering in the first half but it was Docherty who was first to go off with Singbo coming on in midfield. Let me point out that though I'm not keen on Docherty the midfielder I think he's a decent defender so with McGowan missing it was double jeopardy as our only cover for the defence was now gone. We were still chipping away at Caley well past the midway point of the half when the roof just about fell in. Scott Wilson went battling across the half way line when he got involved in a gritty couple of challenges with the Caley midfield and came limping back with his tail between his legs much to Sandy Stewart's dismay. The look on the gaffer's face said it all. With Scott Wilson off, Ronaldo on in midfield, Singbo had to play as a makeshift right back. With Woosh overrun on the left and now Singbo looking out of place on the right, our defence was really up against it. To make matters worse we were shooting ourselves in the foot. Marv Wilson had made a fantastic burst through the midfield, and with the Caley defence all at sea, we had all three strikers pealing off making all the right moves but Marv inexplicably dithered before passing straight to one of their relieved defenders. Marv then went on a mad spell of giving the ball away at least four times in a row culminating in losing possession for their first goal. Wilson galloping away down the right to cross for "plug" Bingham to head home. McManus in the middle of our defence didn't exactly read it too well and was easily beaten. Dosser came on for Vareille inside the last ten minutes but it was Caley who wrapped it up with seconds to go when sub. Hislop ran from deep, held off a brave challenge from Marv then rounded McManus to score. In fairness to McManus I think he tweaked a muscle soon after Scott Wilson went off but he played on rather than leave us with ten men, those being the breaks when you have such a small squad.