Airdrie had to rush back Kevin Christie because of (more) injuries to McManus and Docherty. Clyde didn’t have Scooby Wilson and Craig Bryson in their squad.

AIRDRIE UTD

Clyde

Just like last week’s game, Airdrie got off to a howler. Only two minutes on the clock – Airdrie still to complete a pass successfully – and we’ve conceded a penalty down the left hand side of our defence. Pacey striker/defender Gilhaney got behind the disorganised defence (where was Lovering?). He rounds the goalie, looks for contact, and McGeown obliges only too graciously. Harty steps up and sends the goalie the wrong way.

The alarm call woke Airdrie up. Stephen McKeown crashed a header off the bar and Coyle though he’d bundled the rebound over the line. The linesman didn’t see it the same way but moments later Airdrie drew level when the otherwise awful Hardie threw himself at a cross to head past Halliwell. Airdrie were flying at this point and were looking to go ahead. McKeown had another effort, as did Jerome, before Owen Coyle snapped out of his two month slump to get in front of Potter and stab the ball past Halliwell. Things were looking rosy for all of about however long it took Clyde to involve Kevin Christie. Clyde drew level again on the half hour mark when Graeme Jones, an ageing but still fairly decent typically ‘English’ centre-forward, scored probably the easiest goal of his career by heading home unchallenged in our six yard box from a corner. No goalie, no centre-halves, nothing! No challenges! Nothing! Was Kamikaze the word I’d used earlier? Alan Gow had a tremendous effort where he took on, and beat, several Clyde defenders on a typically mazy run, but the goal of the season was denied by Halliwell’s goalpost. But don’t fret, Airdrie’s defending would ensure there was still plenty of goal action!

Five minutes from the break Kevin Christie didn’t get anywhere near close enough to Ian Harty who needed no invitation to volley a tremendous shot past McGeown from around 18 yards. It will look a spectacular goal on telly but the quality of our defending will be worth scrutinising.

Airdrie had looked by far the better footballing team in the first half. Clyde countered Airdrie’s disjointed 442 system by their patented 82 formation. Simon Mensing was deployed to mark Martin Hardie. Marv picked up defensive midfielder Sheridan, and McKeown went one on one with the usually attack minded Alex Burns. Where Airdrie fell down badly was in what to do with our full backs against their wing-backs (cum full backs). Airdrie seemed to keep Vareille back against Malone, but didn’t push Lovering up against Gilhaney often enough. Vareille didn’t have too bad a first half, and was unlucky on a couple of occasions not to get on the scoresheet. The Frenchman looked like he was playing for a new contract and didn’t look enamoured at being subbed early in the second half. He and Sandy didn’t seem to acknowledge each other. Most notably in the first half was our inability to cope with a two man attack. Christie was simply awful. He’s been missing for a while through injury and may have been dropped in it. I don’t know what Hardie’s excuse is. We seem incapable of stringing two passes together.

The second half was a farce from our point of view. We may have been trailing at half-time but we looked an attacking substitution away from sweeping away the anti-footballers. Ten minutes into the half we’d become almost farcical. To rub it in Lovering was adjudged to have fouled Gilhaney right on the edge of our box. It looked a severely harsh decision by the annoyingly awful referee. To make matters worse it looked like Hardie hadn’t followed Harty’s run and the wee striker almost effortlessly stroked home his third of the game. Sandy’s reaction was to remove Jerome who was seemingly tiring. He switched Hardie to the right and brought on the increasingly ineffective McLaren on the left wing. We got worse. Why switch Hardie who was having a howler? To defend corners? We’d failed to do that with him on the pitch. Thereafter, to the frustration of the Airdrieonians in the Jake Dalziel stand, the Diamonds couldn’t muster anything worthwhile in attack. Clyde adopted a more ‘Maitland-esque’ approach by killing the game dead. Their four centre-halves, sorry stand-off halves, were only interested in finding touch with every clearance. Their midfielders (cum auxiliary centrehalves) went only for ankles, and more time was wasted than a day in parliament. Roll on a summer cull of this squad.