AIRDRIE UTD

St. Mirren

Just like the last meeting at Love Street in September, Airdrie found St. Mirren a very tough nut to crack in the early stages of this encounter. With a very experienced core to their side, and effectively a diamond formation in central defence with Reilly sitting barely in front of a tight three man central defence, and relying on long balls down the channel for the strong running McGinty and Russell to chase after, Airdrie had to adapt their formation for a bit to allow them to blow themselves out. The forward thrust of Gow, Coyle and McLaren was therefore very quiet in the early stages, as Roberts became an auxiliary wing-back to allow Docherty to ‘pick-up’ Gilles in midfield.

Both sides had half chances early on, a Murray shot ran harmlessly wide of Hollis’ goal, but it was Airdrie who took the lead midway through the first half when some good work on the left from Gow, his first major intervention in the game, resulted in a superbly placed pass to the edge of the six yard box for The Living Legend Owen Coyle to expertly tuck home. Saints, of course, were keen to battle back into the game and as the heat turned up the made some more headway. Stephen Docherty had to be cynical in pulling down Ricky Gilles, a yellow card was awarded, when the defence was exposed. Docherty also made a magnificent tackle against a counter-attack when he was the last man, but the skipper had to tread carefully after a bad refereeing decision by Dallas had him warned he was a foul away from a red. Dallas was having a howler.

Airdrie were unhappy when a lovely bit of play released McLaren down the left but incredibly he was flagged off despite looking at least two or three yards onside when the ball was played. Just like Alan Lawrence during most of the nineties, it looks like McLaren’s pace will be too much for these appalling linesmen to keep up with. As the half drew to a close, Marvyn Wilson was forced to concede a free kick 25 yards from goal. Ricky Gilles’ kick was well enough hit, but poor Lee Hollis had it well covered, got his body behind the ball, but embarrassingly, he let the ball squirm under his body. I’ll be sending a video copy of tomorrow’s game to ‘You’ve Been Framed’! Poor Lee, he’d been doing ok and recovered well afterwards to his credit, but I don’t think he’ll enjoy training next week. Still, it might be the making of him if he can get over it, and judging by the comments from the stand, he’ll get every opportunity from the fans.

Seconds after the restart Martin Hardie was extremely unlucky to see Craig Hinchcliffe resemble Clark Kent to tip his bullet like flying header over the bar after an excellent cross from the Doc. St. Mirren were beginning to tire early just as Airdrie’s young studs, and Coyle, were getting going. Coyle, Gow and McLaren were turning the screw, Marv and Hardie were running the midfield, and McGowan and Lovering were desperately keeping Saint’s front (or at least, least defensive) four away from Hollis, but that blooming awul man Dallas was determined to ruin things just as we looked like opening up big time. Alan Gow had dropped deep and was playing his way out of trouble when he tried to go by Mark Reilly. Reilly seemingly clearly, well, to a couple of thousand Airdrieonians others at least, palmed the ball away from Gow to allow him time to set up substitute John O’Neill with an easy chance to give Saints a very undeserved lead. The furious Diamonds players surrounded Scotland’s no. 1 Specsaver sponsored whistler to no avail.

But, as they say, the tough got going. From the kick off, Alan Gow had a powerful shot palmed away by Hinhcliffe, but Martin Hardie showed great desire to thunder home the rebound to immediately stick it to Dallas BIG TIME. From there on in there was only one winner. Gow and McLaren were growing in confidence and Coyle was rising to the challenge. Coyle had already had a right footed effort saved by Hinchy, and Lovering hit the post, before he struck a beautiful winner with ten minutes left with a right footed shot from wide on the left side of the 18 yard box.

Sandy Stewart’s men showed tremendous spirit today. Apart from having the usual worrying suicidal tendencies in defence, his team look to be growing in confidence every game. Willie McLaren looks to be finally establishing himself at this level and Stewart’s faith in Hardie looks justified now, a good move in hindsight that was questioned even in October. Incredibly Airdrie are now only five points off second place, though any thoughts of progression through this league would depend on a dramatic plunge by Falkirk who are a massive 16 points ahead at present. Falkirk beat Clyde today to give themselves a 9 point cushion above St. Mirren, the same gap between ourselves and second bottom Hamilton, who drew in Dingwall. Second place must now surely be Sandy Stewart’s ambition for the end of the month as this second quarter draws to a close? Elsewhere the heat is turning up to boiling point for Britton and Whyte at Firhill. I’m not one for trigger happy reactions but I can’t see this situation going on forever. Thistle have some of the best players in the league but can’t score never mind win..