AIRDRIE UTD

Falkirk

The game had barely started and Falkirk went a goal up. Russell Latapy, playing in the hole behind the strikers, had absolutely ages to pick his shot from over 20 yards out to curl an absolute belter, with the outside of his right foot, past the helpless Mark McGeown.

Airdrie regrouped after that stunning start and proceeded to play Falkirk off the park. Willie McLaren was getting fed plenty of balls in behind the Falkirk defence, and both he and Owen Coyle had a few efforts on the Falkirk goal, but to no avail. Possibly the best effort of the first half fell to Stephen McKeown who charged down an attempted clearance from Ferguson, but after the ball scudded off his crotch, the ball rolled agonisingly, in more ways than one, wide of the goals. Kevin Christie had a shout for a penalty when he seemed to be body-checked by James but there was absolutely no chance of baldy ref Rowbotham giving us any significant decision. Duffy of Falkirk made Mark McGeown work with a long-range effort but Airdrie remained in contention until slack defending reared its ugly head again. A deep free kick was aimed towards Kevin James, who’d been lurking in front of the defence. His marker Martin Hardie failed to make a significant challenge, and Andy Thomson had gambled on the knock down advance past McGowan to slot past McGeown. A very obviously well thought out move by Falkirk that could have been prevented, though there is certain inevitability about the gigantic, 6’7”, frame of Kevin James winning such a crucial header. Falkirk entered the interval with a two-nil lead gleaned from three efforts on goal.

Airdrie, despite some good possession and a few efforts on target, still seemed to be playing within themselves. Defensively they looked fragile. Once again the slumbering presence of Christie against the superior mobility of Falkirk’s strikers was breeding panic in the Airdrie defence. With McGowan still not at his best we had a few heart-stopping moments apart from the goals. Barkey looked so short of confidence early on that I’d have said sub him there and then. I’m still sure the wee man could have a decent future, but he’ll need to add something to his game. As the game wore on he demonstrated that he does have great stamina for this level, but he failed again to take on a man, and was caught out a few times. Up front Coyle and McKeown couldn’t be faulted for effort, but the build up play from both of them was inconsistent at best. Airdrie’s best hope was McLaren but in the absence of Gow, he’s becoming too obvious, such is our desperation to channel everything through him. Still, hope for the second half, as we were far from out of it, though we needed to do it without the help of Stephen Docherty, who I presume was injured in an ugly challenge from Falkirk’s midfield enforcer, McKenzie.

Falkirk actually played their best football after the break. The almost anonymous Latapy got on the ball a few more times and the threat was definitely there. Airdrie eventually brought on Gow after an hour for the badly tiring McKeown. The lanky striker yet again lit up the play with some fine skill and a degree of urgency that had been missing to that point. The goal came from a decent cross from Doc’s replacement, McManus. The ball evaded James and Campbell. Coyle took the ball down well and thumped another right-footed shot beyond Ferguson. At that point we looked good but incredibly within about five minutes we conceded the killer goal. Latapy played in Thomson, who worked a one-two with Duffy that Christie and McManus could only watch. Thomson’s shot was well blocked by McGeown, but the ball squirmed across goal to McGowan, who took a mad hack at it and missed, before Lovering incredibly failed to clear his lines, allowing Falkirk’s right back to steal an easy goal. Not for the first time this season Airdrie had hit the self destruct button. Given the high standards that Sandy Stewart, Jimmy Boyle and Kenny Black set during their playing careers I’m absolutely shocked at the abysmal standard of our defending at present!

The third goal completely knocked the stuffing out of Airdrie’s bold comeback attempt. The heads went down, McLaren, Hardie and Lovering looked physically shattered, not a good sign in October, and there was no way back.

Again, it looked like long spells that Airdrie might just be on the verge of turning this mythical corner, just like last season, but the spectre of their bad defending continues to haunt. We don’t really have the personnel to change things considerably, so the coaching skills of Black and Stewart will have to be pushed to the limit again. Would playing McManus at centre-half stiffen the defence? Would Vareille provide some cutting edge on the right to give young Barkey a break to help restore his confidence? Will Gow ever be deemed fit to start in place of McKeown? Realistically, with Gow we look a good team, without him we struggle. Too often there are no options for the players in possession and the defence and midfield are creaking. Next week we have to go to Dumfries. They aren’t the most skilful team in the league, but we’ll need to work our butts off to get a result. Three points is a must.