AIRDRIE UTD

Partick

Airdrie and Thistle both looked up for this much anticipated clash on a glorious day for a football match. Over 4000 fans were packed in, the Airdrieonians were in the newest stand behind the goals at the top of the road. Thistle were fastest out the blocks, putting Airdrie under immediate pressure. Twice early on, Willie Wilson had to look sharp to cut out crosses from the Thistle right. It was obvious that six foot plus wide man Kenny Milne had a particular mission to pressurise Wilson on that right side of our defence. Thankfully Anis on Thistle’s right flank had a woeful cross on him. Airdrie had to rely on a more methodical approach without the mercurial dribbling skills of Gow, and the lightening pace of McLaren. Stevie McKeown revelled in this rare start and won a lot of possession by dropping off the frontline to link things up. The main difference this game was that McKeown was looking to bring the midfield into the game. Varielle and Coyle saw a lot more of the ball as a consequence and these three players were at the heart of Airdrie’s early attacks. Airdrie took the lead after Coyle had moments earlier passed up a glorious chance. Coyle had read a slack backpass and sped in on Arthur’s goal. Either Arthur made a tremendous save or Coyle didn’t do enough but thanks to some hustle from Stevie McKeown in the corner, his cross was met in the box by Coyle to head home the opener. Airdrie looked confident but were looking a whole lot shakier than normal. As in recent weeks, Dunn failed to get a grip in midfield and Roberts was almost non existant on the left wing. That left Scott Wilson and Paul Lovering toiling on the left side of our defence as Mitchell, Gibson and Anis continually bombarded them. Some good keeping from McGeown kept them at bay for so long, but the dangerous and talented front pairing of Escalson and Hinds were lurking ominously, especially the skilful Escalson, who must be the most talented striker in this league since Fernandez? Thistle took the lead before half time when Milne found space on their left, with only Varielle for company, and whipped in a vicious cross to the near post that was majestically bulleted home by Ramon Escalson. I admit to being impressed by that finish. The half played out with Thistle having slightly the upper hand and worryingly, Airdrie’s weakness at right back being callously exposed by Thistle on a few occasions.

I was expecting that Airdrie were going to introduce Christie for W.Wilson at half-time as it seemed that Christie was going through a genuine ‘get ready’ type of warm-up. The subsitution didn’t happen as I’d expected and unsurprisingly Thistle took the lead inside ten minutes of the re-start. Thistle made light work of Willie Wilson again down their left, and a dangerous cross bobbled to David Dunn in our six yard box. For the second time in the game, Dunn tried to put his foot ON the ball and play his way out of trouble, but he failed to clear under pressure and Leigh Hinds wasted no time in slamming the ball into the net. Airdrie immediately threw Kevin Christie on for SCOTT Wilson, not exactly playing brilliant, who was presumably carrying a knock. Dunn didn’t last much longer as Stephen Docherty was brought on to stabilise the midfield. Airdrie did well to fight back into the game and again, Owen Coyle threw us a lifeline by deftly heading home a Lovering cross. His goal celebration was a peach, he pointed into the crowd and seemed to say “this one’s for you” before bowing. The classy celebration was to prove premature though!

Only minutes later Thistle again exposed the right side of our defence. Milne had been replaced by the equally tall, muscly and even faster Manny Panther. The Brian McPhee lookalike was now causing Willie Wilson even more problems and turned him inside out on their left at the halfway line to force forwards and win a corner off McGeown. The resulting cross was headed into the net by Jamie Mitchell, almost a carbon copy of Coyle’s second, to give Thistle the eventual winner. It wasn’t for the lack of effort from Airdrie. Coyle worked hard up front, Docherty had an effort from 20 yards that was too straight and young sub Hoey had a dangerous cross that wasn’t turned in, but Airdrie just didn’t have enough to blast their way back into it.

A disappointing end to the match, but in general it was an excellent match and a massive improvement, no offence, on dreary trips to Cowdenbeath or Berwick. I left feeling that we have so much more to offer than we did today. Gow, McLaren, Hardie and McGowan will all make a massive difference on their return, but I'm concerned about right back. For all that he's nice and makes all the right gestures, I fear that Willie Wilson is going to struggle badly in this league. If Christie isn't deemed good enough to go straight back into the team at his expense, and if Scott Wilson is injured and/or unreliable too, I'm concerned we may already be a defender short in our squad. We'll find out soon enough but it looks from here that we may always be one injury or suspension away from a defensive crisis. The rest of the squad looks just about right but it's looking like Christie, S.Wilson and W.Wilson - in that order - are more like decent cover. We'll see soon enough...