AIRDRIE UTD

Dundee

FIRST HALFAirdrie may have went with the same starting eleven as last week but there was a subtle difference with Dunn playing in central midfield and McLaren back on the left wing. It was a move that would ensure that Airdrie didn’t get into the game at all in the first half. Dundee worked Airdrie harder than they’ve done in previous games this season and were obviously buoyed by their recent hammering of St. Mirren in their last outing. Dundee took the lead midway through the first half after capitalising on an uncharacteristic error by midfield anchorman Stephen McKeown. Dosser, needing to get his foot firmly behind the ball to clear his lines, opted for a rather lame lifted pass out wide to full back McKenna, but succeeded only in squandering possession. The ball was played infield to O’Reilly on the edge of the area for the big striker to hold off a challenge and give Robertson no chance with the drive. Airdrie certainly couldn’t be faulted for effort but with only a few dazzling runs from MacDougall to show for their efforts it looked like a one goal deficit at the interval was the best we could hope for. Alas, that didn’t even happen either. Right on half-time McManus rashly took out Steven Craig as he danced around the edge of the Airdrie box in an area you’d have expected a midfielder to be patrolling. Up stepped cumbersome centre-half Bobby Mann to delicately clip home a cracker of a free kick.

MATCH UP Both sides played 442 formations. As noted previously Airdrie gambled on David Dunn in central midfield but the move backfired as expected with too little ‘bite’ in that area. The other area of concern was centre-forward. Against the leaden footed Mann you could assume that McPhee’s blistering pace would have been too much for Mann to cope with but Sandy stuck with Hardie after last week’s success. For 75 minutes the battering ram approach simply didn’t work to any degree. The change at half-time with Holmes replacing Dunn paid off instantly as Airdrie again had a platform to build from, whilst the late insertion of McPhee for Hardie paid off spectacularly, even if Hardie seemed less than impressed at the time!

SECOND HALFYou could tell by the look in their eyes Airdrie were up for it after the break. With Holmes bringing much needed urgency and drive to the midfield Airdrie set about carving open Dundee. Lovering pushed further up on the left flank to constantly overlap McLaren, with McLaren and MacDougall both looking for opportunities to cut inside. Airdrie pegged one back after quarter of an hour. A cross from the left was turned back across goal by MacDougall for Prunty to turn the ball past Jack. Airdrie probed and probed but just weren’t getting the break to draw level but you could sense it coming and see the desire to do so. It clearly needed a slight change with McPhee and the long overdue substitution proved the catalyst for the best comeback in a long time. McPhee cracked a 35 yard shot off the crossbar with his first touch but it took another ten minutes for him to make the most telling contribution. McPhee skinned Dixon down the right flank and bravely beat Mann under heavy challenge to squeeze the ball across goal for Prunty to divert the ball home. With only two minutes left on the clock we were delighted to have salvaged a point and avoided defeat but Bryan Prunty’s aggressive determination to succeed left us all dumfounded as seconds later he pounced to stab home the winner with thanks to what looked like a wicked deflection.

GOING FORWARD Isn’t it great that you can win all three points and still learn vital lessons you may only otherwise realise in defeat. We learned today that Dunn isn’t to be entrusted with a central midfield berth, and that Hardie is not the best choice to play at centre forward in front of bona-fide strikers such as McPhee and Twigg. The ‘up’ side is that there are some promising solutions to our problem positions. Graeme Holmes is looking like he’s ready to stake a claim to partner Dosser in midfield with his passing and positional sense seemingly far superior to all other contenders at the club. The question is: Is he ready to start? This weekend we have St. Johnstone and of course, Darren Sheridan, possibly the most streetwise old pro in the league. Wouldn’t that be a tremendous tester to see if Holmes is the real deal? Otherwise it’s incredible watching this reconstructed side just get better and better as the season goes on. Well done again to Sandy Stewart and his team.