AIRDRIE UTD

Clyde

Airdrie looked fragile from the start of this game defensively but while they have McPhee and Prunty to lead by example from the front there should never be any doubt that we carry our own threat. And so it panned out in only ten minutes. Stephen McKeown found space in midfield, laid a ball out wide to McPhee who flicked the ball on first time for Prunty who’d made a darting run between defenders. Prunty sped down the inside right channel and thundered a rocket past Cherrie from the edge of the box. The lead was only to last around ten minutes though. Tom Brighton, easily the best player in Clyde’s side and probably the best striker in the league, dispossessed Stephen McKenna on the halfway line, sped away from the defender and easily ghosted past a terribly executed ‘non-challenge’ from out of position midfielder Hardie, rounded Robertson and fired ruthlessly home the equaliser to silence the Airdrie fans. Prunty had a glorious effort after good work by Fraser Coyle on the right. Prunty’s long range blast was agonisingly tipped over by Cherrie when the effort seemed to have ‘goal’ written all over it. At the other end bookies favourite Williams – who was guilty of ignorantly ‘flipping the bird’ to the home fans – easily robbed Hardie on the touchline to set up O’Donnell but Robertson save Hardie’s blushes with a well timed block on the on rushing midfielder.

Airdrie’s much changed line up threw up a few pleasant surprises. Much as the rejigged defence looked decidedly shaky it must be noted that they only lost one goal, a marked improvement on recent weeks. But it was in midfield that the biggest surprise was gained in the shape of Graeme Holmes. Fans have been desperate to see the classy kid get his chance and Holmes didn’t disappoint. Asked to mark O’Donnell, Holmes never gave an inch defensively and asked a lot of questions going forward. Same too goes for Willie McLaren who had to do a similar job on Craig Bryson. McLaren has blossomed this season into a hard working midfielder. McLaren tracked back every forward run from his opponent but importantly he asked more questions of his man in return. Fraser Coyle too on the right wing had a good game too and surely has made it easy for Sandy to select him again on a more regular basis. Coyle has had a disappointingly slow start after showing more promise pre-season but he’s looking much more comfortable with his role now. Coyle’s inclusion at right wing back makes it easier to accommodate Docherty at sweeper in the coming weeks – if captain marvellous isn’t too busy …

Stephen McKeown had been his usual reliable self for most of the match but fell asleep just after the break when he went to sleep letting Malone break upfield at pace and, not for the first time, Robertson saved the day blocking at Malone’s feet. Willie McLaren had a couple of chances after breaking free of Bryson but Cherrie was unbeatable and the best chance of the lot fell to Bryan Prunty but I felt that the normally cool finisher tried to be to cute with his finish and he was denies by a heroic save from Cherrie. A late header from Lovering shaved the bar too. However the main talking point of the second half was the atrocious refereeing from Dougie MacDonald. Early in the half he booked three Airdrie players in five minutes for absolute nothing fouls. To make matters worse he immediately ignored a worse foul by Bryson to leave me feeling we were being unfairly singled out in a rather dubious manner. Bizarrely though the referee eventually balanced out his erratic display later on in a potentially damaging last ten minutes for both clubs as the ‘McKeowns’ from either side saw red in vaguely deserving manner. Clyde’s McKeown was rightly booked for a high challenge that nearly ended McLaren’s afternoon prematurely but he was second yellowed near the end for two quick fouls, the last of which was a nothing foul, in succession. Then our McKeown got his second yellow, the first was one of the harsh trio from earlier, for blocking a quick – fly – free kick by sneaky Joe Miller as the ref was talking to McKeown. McKeown was trying to block a late counter as the ref had potentially left us exposed by talking to our midfielder. It was brainless block by McKeown but in my opinion the ref was wrong to allow the free kick to take place as he was standing over the ball talking to McKeown. Both clubs will have key players suspended because of a game that was never dirty but was over zealously officiated by an incompetent referee.

I don’t mind being glad to see the back of Clyde for a while. They are potentially a very good side, as witnessed when they dumped the ‘mighty’ Celtic a fortnight ago, but they have a terrible play acting habit that has been coached into them. Roberts has some good kids, surely he’d be better concentrating on what they do well. They are fantastic on the break utilising great pace all across their midfield. In Brighton they have one of the best strikers I’ve seen in Division 1. I’m sure Rangers have signed several worse players in the last five years and I can’t understand why they let that guy go. It’s just a pity that the play acting is so rife.

From the perspective of an Airdrieonian it was good to not only avoid defeat but to impress again our own credentials. We have an excellent strikeforce in Brian and Bryan and the midfield trio were top notch. I stated before the game that we had to nullify their threat in midfield and you could see early on that our three weren’t going to give an inch. At various stages you could see that our guys were so close to their opponents: McLaren on Bryson, McKeown on Malone, and Holmes on O’Donnell. They diligently tracked runners and all three made their own headway into the Clyde half at every opportunity. I am annoyed at the McKeown red card, it was totally avoidable and we now lose arguably our best player for at least one game. All he’s done is leave a door open for someone else to impress. Will it be Docherty? How annoying is it that he was selling tiles at a time when we needed him? I’m sure there’ll be more to this story in the coming weeks. We’ve got all week before the window shuts, I’m sure we could do with engineering a move to get a central defender into the club.