Airdrie
Airdrie 4 Vs. 1 Dumbarton
By Stomp Admin
August 12 2012
On the 20th of May 2012 Dumbarton embarrassed us 4-1 to secure promotion to the Irn Bru First Division, yesterday the 11th of August 2012 Airdrie got a little taste of vengeance by reversing that 4-1 score line, unfortunately it wasn’t in front of the 2,914 fans who turned up to watch the Play Off Final.
We thought we would have our work cut out yesterday especially as our central midfield partnership of Blockley and Lynch were serving suspensions, (unconfirmed) rumours on the terraces that Kieran Stallard has also left the club meant our midfield would be an unknown entity.
Arthur
Hart, MacDonald, Lilley, Warren (Di Giacomo 65),
Bain, Barclay, Donnelly (Buchanan 72), Cook (Griffin 59),
Boyle, McLaren
Subs Not Used: Duncan, Sally.
Goals : Boyle 14, 25, 31, Di Giacomo 88.
Where one door closes another opens and due to the suspension Ryan Donnelly and Jamie Barclay from the U19’s stepped in to shore up the midfield. Was it risky move bringing in an U19’s player? Maybe but the young lad showed talent beyond his years and both Barclay and Donnelly worked well together in the first half.
It would be easy to harp on about last week’s missed chances, but a 17 minute Hat Trick sure puts those thoughts to the back of your mind. John Boyle Opened the scoring for the Diamonds on 14 minutes, a cleared ball from MacDonald caught the Dumbarton defence sleeping, but not Boyle. Breaking the offside trap he fired low passed Grindlay to make it 1-0.
Brian Prunty had an opportunity to level the scoring, a bullet header flew just over the cross bar
Has the rules changed over the summer concerning the offside rule or did the near side lines man just not know it? On several occasion players were waved offside when not interfering with play on a few occasion I was sure our players were on side when the flag went up for offside and I’m almost positive that Boyles second goal came from an offside position. Willie McLaren, if Boyle wasn’t offside, sprung the offside trap and found Boyle in space racing in to the penalty box he once again easily beat Grindlay.
For his third Boyle robbed Martin McNiff, the Dumbarton defender seemed to get the ball trapped under his feet, Boyle stole it from him and celebrated his hat trick by beating Gringlay once again.
To start the second half Dumbarton made changes, Brian Prunty and Phil Johnston never made it back out of the changing rooms, no offence to either but it took almost 10 minutes before I realised there had been changes after missing the start of the half.
Either the changes or tiredness took its toll; we lost shape we couldn’t hold on to the ball and we let Dumbarton back in to the game. Jim Lister scored as the ball bounced about in the penalty area.
A Jamie Bain corner saw Di-Giacomo header in to the top corner at the last second Grindlay got his hand to the ball and tipped it around the corner post.
Michael Hart was then forced to clear the ball from an Alan Lithgow header, then Gavin Griffin had a goal line clearance as Gilhaney’s shot looked destined for the back of the net.
In simple terms we were holding on 3-1 before we had another chance on goal, Di-Giacomo broke down the wing and Boyle raced with him, at the last second Boyle changed direction and without looking up Di-Giacomo fired the ball to where he thought Boyle would be. It should have/could have been Boyles fourth.
Finally it was man of the match Boyle who made sure of the points; firing across the penalty box for Di-Giacomo to make it 4-1.
It was a good opening Irn Bru 1st Division match for Airdrie and good to see our strikers do actually have shooting boots, Barclay impressed me and Donnelly worked very hard in a foreign position. But still we need to learn to hold on to the ball, the two chances squandered by Dumbarton on another day could have made the score three each (before Di-Giacomo got the forth).
To see pistures of Saturday's macth against Dumbarton Click Here for Robert Dalzell's web page.
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12/08/2012 12:07
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Boyles workrate and finishing was the difference for me in the first half but that second half performance will see us struggle against other teams.
Only Airdrie can make you feel uneasy at 3 up at home !!
Defense needs to communicate more and midfield (accept missing two) needs to get forward quicker - credit Barclay if that was his debut.
Much needed 3 points to begin with
Arthur - a solid display, particularly in the 1st half. Not much he could do about Dumbarton's goal, as it was a scrappy affair. 7
Hart - very professional. He's exactly what we've been lacking at right back in recent seasons. 7
Warren - I'm still not convinced. Since he's not the greatest tackler in the world, he should try to make up for it by pushing forward more, overlapping McLaren down the flank, like Griffin did when he came on. 5
MacDonald - had a good game & even got an assist for Boyle's first goal. 7
Lilley - a very good 1st half but struggled a bit in the 2nd half to cope with Lister's physical presence. Not an easy task, but came through it well. 6
Barclay - a sound debut for the youngster. Not overly noticeable, but quietly effective & could develop into a really good player, like Blockley, but with the added advantage of height. One to watch. 6
Bain - glad to have him back. Not the most technically gifted winger, but his eagerness rubs off on those around him & his tenacity led to Airdrie's 4th goal. 6
Donnelly - surprisingly effective in the middle of the park, given that he was played out of position. Battled for every ball & his distribution was decent. 7
Cook - looked a shadow of the player who came on against Queens Park. Gone were the driving runs & he didn't look much of a goal threat, either. 5
Boyle - time for me to eat humble pie after slagging him for his display in the last game. What can I say? Bagged a hat-trick in 17 minutes & laid it on a plate for Di Giacomo to score the 4th. The wee man was sublime & not just his goals, but his overall play was excellent. Obviously our Man of the Match. 10
McLaren - you can't help but admire the curious genius that is Willie McLaren. Played up front initially to get him more involved & it worked. Lovely dinked ball to set up Boyle's 2nd goal & gave the Sons defence a torrid time all afternoon. 8
The Subs.
Griffin - another fine display. Looked more comfortable when moved to left back & at least one vital goal line clearance. 5
Di Giacomo - took a little while to get into the game, but effective once he did. Dangerous movement at corners & finished his goal well. 5
Buchanan - brought on to replace Donnelly, who had taken a knock. He played well enough. 2
Our second win this season over 1st Division opposition. If only we could manage that against lesser teams! The players responded well to bounce back from the Queen's Park debacle & it gives us some optimism for the rest of the campaign. If we are to stay up, it's vital we win our home games against teams like Dumbarton, so we're off to a good start.
Let's not get too carried away with the win, though. Dumbarton's defence looked very suspect & their manager should have exploited our suspensions by playing 3 players in central midfield against our makeshift pairing. He'll also learn that Steven McDougall isn't a forward. His attempts on goal were pitiful when he was with us & nothing's changed.
Arthur- Solid when he had to be, bit unsure whether he could have done better at the goal but nothing in particular to complain about, will definitely be tested a lot more in coming weeks-6
Hart- Like is said above, very professional, caught out once or twice but definitely looks a good signing-6
Lilley- Really good again, will continue to be solid throughout the entire game in future once he has a half decent centre mid pairing in front of him-7
MacDonald- Solid as usual, nothing to complain about-7
Warren-Looked ok at the back and quite effective when going forward, just wish he would do that more, looks a promising signing-6
Bain-Quite good down the right wing, tracked back and was good on the break-7
Barclay-Did ok on his debut-5
Donnelly-Awful, no ball control and looked to be trying to hard to make up for his mistakes at times, missed a sitter for a striker as well-4
Cook-Did ok, nothing spectacular-6
McLaren-Good, played in his best position in my opinion, was lively although looked dead on his feet by the end suggesting he's not fully fit yet-7
Boyle-What can I say, wee man came alive yesterday, outstanding-10
Subs: Griffin-Not terrible going forward but looked shakey at the back except for his wonderful clearance off the line, not much time to show what esle he can do to be honest-3
Buchanan-Not played in his preffered position, nearly scored an own goal, again didn't really have enough time to show what he could do-2
Di Giacomo-Came on and gave his all as usual and got his goal-3
Pleased with yesterdays result, defence looked solid in the first half and think that with a better two central midfielders in front of them wouldn't have as much pressure on them to defend as much and therefore may be solid for the entire match in future. Midfield weren't really in the game apart from Bain, most of our play was balls over the top for the forwards to latch on to. Strikers really impressed me, work load from both was second to none, they will come up against better defenders but fair play to them they did the job. Once Blockley and Lynch and this new guy Jack Boyle are in the squad the midfield will be better and I then think the rest of the team will work together better as a result.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012:08:12:18:36:25 by bigdi@mond.
Teams like Dumbarton, Cowdenbeath etc are the teams we need to be beating this season. We'll take our fair share of defeats this year but we must be realistic. The teams to beat are those who may be battling our relegation with us. 8th place is the target. Anything better is a bonus.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:08:13:01:45:21 by Diamond F.
Quote:Diamond F
Agree with official report for a change. Donnely's performance has certainly split the ranks. I thought he did well but he has played the midfield role lots of times, so not that much out of position. Agree with GD. We need to create a mini league with us, d'barton,c'beath and maybe morton.
I think Morton will be comfortable this year mid table. I think Hamilton will be down the bottom though, they could easily be near us at the bottom come next May.
Quote:Diamond LadQuote:Diamond F
Agree with official report for a change. Donnely's performance has certainly split the ranks. I thought he did well but he has played the midfield role lots of times, so not that much out of position. Agree with GD. We need to create a mini league with us, d'barton,c'beath and maybe morton.
I think Morton will be comfortable this year mid table. I think Hamilton will be down the bottom though, they could easily be near us at the bottom come next May.
<> I think Hamilton might struggle a bit too. BTW better teams would really have punished us on Saturday - mind you we had a few chances that didn't go in either. <>
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