AIRDRIE UTD

Clyde

FIRST HALFNot much to say about that first half, my only consolation was missing the first five minutes to enjoy a bonus pint of Stella. Airdrie provided plenty of bustle but not a lot of hustle. Clyde took a pretty much undeserved lead midway through the match when right winger Michael McGowan was the only player to gamble on Brighton beating McManus to a long ball. McGowan wasted no time in beating Robbo. From that moment on the timewasting tictacs were wheeled out by the home side and Airdrie stumbled helplessly to the interval.

MATCH UP Both sides went with a 352 formation in an attempt to counter each other. Most notable difference between the two sides though was that Clyde were extremely quick on the break whereas Airdrie attacks were quick to break down. Several times in the first half Brian McPhee was being howled at by his defenders for not providing what they classed as an out ball. McPhee shook his head as both Lovering and McGowan pointed him into the corner when McPhee wanted the ball in to feet. Airdrie’s tiresome use of Paul Lovering’s aerial ability on the left wing did nothing to excite the visiting fans. It may have worked against Dundee a few weeks back but I think everyone is now looking for that move and are first to every second ball. That left wing was a cause for concern. Without McLaren to work with Lovering toiled to make an impression. Not like he did as a Bankie in the mid to late 90’s anyway. On the other flank Stephen MacDougall was on limited supply but when he did try to get running he was cynically scythed down. Midfield was working best with Docherty given licence to break forward with Barkey playing well in the holding role. Brian Prunty was a source of discontent. Prunty was signed to get goals but is getting very little in the way of chances. Airdrie aren’t getting the ball into the danger area with any kind of regularity or menace and Prunty is suffering miserably. It’s blatently obvious that he will not win many headers 30 yards from goal, and the likelihood of Lovering heading the ball from the left touchline to the edge of the six yard box is at best fairytale stuff.

SECOND HALFAirdrie made a surprising change at halftime by bringing on McLaren up front in the place of MacDougall with Barkey moving to the right flank. The move paid off in terms of changing the pattern of the game. Or should that be giving the game a pattern? McLaren, Docherty twice and Lovering all frustratingly worked the Clyde goal without success. Docherty thundered a shot off the underside of the bar from 20yards out, McManus had a late slapped shot cleared off the line, there were two calls for handballs in the Clyde box and Hardie looked to be unfairly impeded as the bore down on goal, a Clyde defender deliberately falling under his stride to bring him down. Clyde only threatened on the counter attack but apart from Neil McGowan’s hat-trick of miskicks they didn’t look like getting close enough to do any more damage.

GOING FORWARD That was a frustrating game for many reasons. Firstly the lethargic start. Why does it have to take till half-time to fix things in these kind of games? We’ve now had six single goal defeats this season. With St. Mirren and QOTS coming up I can’t see us changing the formation, it’s probably more a case of getting the right players in the right positions and doing the right jobs. Against St. Mirren I really fancy seeing us getting stuck right into their central defence, the heartbeat of their side. We’re going to struggle to get in behind them, they sit so deep, I’ve revised my own thinking due to recent form. I’d really like to see us partner McPhee with Stephen McKeown for this match with Martin Hardie pressing up closer to gumsy Millen than his own jersey. I’d have Docherty on the right flank to try to get quality balls in from wide and to keep Lappin in check, with Barkey specially allocated to nullify Charlie Adam, and McLaren drafted in to push back Coatbridge boy Murray, and to try to link with Lovering on the left. That may seem harsh on Bryan Prunty who will undoubtedly have a point to prove, maybe from the bench on this occasion, after his awfully clattering from Potter in the first game, but I feel that we’re not competing enough in the final third and we need to hold the ball up a bit more. Apart from failing to deliver passes into the danger zone (as Andy Gray calls the “six yard box in front of the six yard box”, I have two major gripes about our approach. One, is free kicks. From a dangerous-ish position on the edge of the box, is the best we can hope for a hopeless ‘welly’ straight at the wall? Surely Stephen McKeown or Bryan Prunty can get a ball up over the wall and back down again? Secondly from corner kicks, will we ever even get a touch on the ball before we’re defending on our own half way line? From the 1990 book by FA coach Charles Hughes we’re told that “… two out of every three successful corners are played to the near post and almost all of them inswingers…”, ironically the only time I can remember us getting a goal from a corner lately was when MacDougall hit one from the left against Dundee. We seemed to be stuck with McLaren hitting outswingers from the left side and we never usually get a touch. Time for a re-think?