airdrieman

Moffat going to Dunfermline means he’s almost guaranteed to sign for us sooner rather than later.

To answer your original question - no. I think the last thing you could accuse this Airdrie team of is being ‘dirty’ or ‘hatchet men’ or ‘cynical’ etc. We do pick up cards but that tends to be as a result of Josh Rae coming steaming off his line regardless of the score or circumstances (including being 5-1 up in a play-off semi-final first-leg) or an outfield player doing something daft. I’d like a destroyer type midfielder, and I think it would add something to this team even if they didn’t play every week, but McCabe has never, at least outwardly, identified that as being an issue and we’ve largely got by fine so far. So fair enough. We’ve got a very defined style of play #McCabeball so expect us to play out from the back, retaining and moving possession quickly (at our best), getting the ball out wide and just generally going for it. We scored 99 goals last season so when it works it is a joy to watch. And there can be the odd disaster which is a good laugh at least. We’ve had as a good a start to the season as we could have asked for really. 100% record in the League Cup group and took Ross County to extra-time and 6/9 points in our first three league games. Despite that, I’m not very hopeful about this game at all. Was always likely to be a tough ask but with Frizzell out, if McCabe and Telfer are also missing, I think it will be a bridge too far for our young and thus far impressive midfield. It feels a bit defeatist, and I wish I wasn’t so for a league game, but if we avoid a humping I’ll probably be content enough with that. Whatever happens it’ll be an interesting test to see how we stack up against the clear favourites for the league. All that being said, looking forward to shitfesting a 1-0 win from a Todorov header from 2 yards out. After Fordyce is sent due to cracking Louis Moult for being a Motherwell b*****d and red cards for David Hutton and Jim Goodwin paggering the tunnel at full-time. Both teams fined for bringing the game into disrepute.

Should expand our player/coach repertoire and play Ryan McStay in the middle of the park on Saturday. The most obvious solution IMO.

Updating the servers in preparation for all our deadline day business tomorrow

Don’t remember that one but I do remember ‘Johnny Martin’s Willy’. Speaking of ‘interesting’ posters, whatever happened to @Cooper81? Did he get stuck when P&B was in purgatory and never make it back out?

A few posts discussing signing a left-back. IMO, Ballantyne has been such a revelation at left-back I’d be for keeping him there and signing a backup right-back to Watson. We’ve got Hancock who can cover left-back and even Fellows should he be deemed ready. Whereas if Watson is out through injury/suspension/loss of form we’d have to move Ballantyne over and play a new left-back rather than just replacing him like-for-like with x player as backup.

Assuming it was them Sean Kelly, Stephen Bradley, Jack Hamilton and Dan MacKay are all first team players and there might have been more in the Livi team for all I know. Bradley is a decent Premiership player let alone against essentially an U18s team and MacKay, who scored a hat-trick, scored for Inverness in the Scottish Cup final last season. The difference not only in experience but quality between the two XIs is night and day. A tough lesson for them today but hopefully it was exactly that.

Impressive that this thread got ruined more quickly than the old Airdrie v Falkirk ones used to.

Glad to hear he's doing well. I don't think he was ever likely to make it with us, but he was on the bench several times. He became reasonably popular and a bit of a cult figure even without playing, mainly on account of his da' being a lovely guy and a bit of a character, as seen by his appearances on AirdrieFanTV and the Facebook page that he runs on behalf of Bright (where he's compared Bright with Messi, Eto'o and discussed his future international prospects, all with some excellent use of imagery). Bright also got wired into the post-play-off celebrations which was nice. I hope he and the Rovers as a whole continue to have a good season. Get back up sooner rather than later.

Agree with the comments from others, and McCabe and McMaster, that we didn’t play particularly well. Equally I don’t think we played that badly either. I don’t think we had to get out of second gear at all. Inverness had a lot of the ball but did largely nothing with it. While we were hanging on a bit at the end I don’t think Inverness really put us under the cosh at all. They looked a poor team. Some good individual players but no identity or clear plan which I think was one of the key differences between the sides. Can only add to the superlatives regarding McMaster and Aiken. Really mature performance from both of them and McMaster is already a leader in this team. Seems daft to say but it makes you feel proud seeing his development. So good positionally and tactically, and we especially saw that yesterday once we went down to 10 men. He held that midfield together, dropped in between the centre-halves when he had to and kept us solid enough to limit Inverness and see the game out. Never wasted a pass once again either. Aiken was also very good, although that ‘attempt’ at goal might be one of the worst I’ve ever seen Obviously the age or lack of experience in our team has been a fairly contentious issue this week. But kudos to them for seeing out a win in a midfield which didn’t contain any of McCabe, Frizzell or Telfer. I’m not sure anyone would have expected us to do that last year in League 1 let alone the Championship so fair play to them. That’s not a position we want to be in every week mind so if Telfer or McCabe aren’t back next week it could be a tricky afternoon. Agree also that Frizzell needs to be careful with the number of bookings he’s collecting. The first was soft but the second was unarguable. Needs to be smarter there as while the foul was ‘cute’, I’m not sure it’d have led to a goal. In some ways I’d rather Frizzell missed Tannadice than Gayfield but he’s still a huge loss. Credit to McGregor also who I think is getting better as the weeks go. Gave Davidson a difficult afternoon and was instrumental in the two goals. And that run also deserved a goal. Could have been a real turning point since they went straight up the park and scored after it but it thankfully didn’t matter in the end. Paying a fee for a player is both terrifying and exciting! Neither necessarily mean anything but he’s played and scored in his limited amount of first team games and he’s spoken of highly by folk, including Airdrie Challenge Cup winner Marc Smyth. If nothing else I hope he’s better than Jonathan Page and the Northern Irish jobbers we had on the books last season. I hope folk are patient with him as, however talented he is and even with a transfer fee behind him, he’s still likely to be a young and inconsistent winger given his age and lack of experience. Really looking forward to seeing him in action though. 6/9 points is probably as a good a start as anyone could have asked for. I know we should maybe be looking up the way rather than down, but a 6 point gap between us and bottom is a good bridge to take to Tannadice with us. Just a pity Arbroath and Thistle both won yesterday as well! Really looking forward to Tannadice next week. It’s a ground I like although I’ve never seen Airdrie play there before so I’m looking forward to it for that alone. Not expecting a result but it will be fun going there as the underdogs. Very much a one and done for me though as f**k paying £25 again. Hopefully be a good crowd through for it. Speaking of which, it’s been fantastic seeing the main stand busier than it’s been for years. Long may it continue

You should get an email from the club when your card is ready to pick up. I’m not sure how long it takes as I bought mine when they first went on sale, and picked it up the week of the first game, but they’ll probably be available quicker than that. If you’re unsure I would give the club a call/email. I don’t know if you saw mate but I found this week that Joe Caven passed away a week or two ago. Last player to score 5 in a game for Airdrie and his scoring record was something like 57 goals in 105 appearances which is some feat! I think he was a Scottish Cup semi-finalist too? Sad news. RIP.

I would file calling him a ‘bloody wean’, ‘a joke’ and ‘pointless’ in the writing him off category. Of course the season has been a small sample size so far. And maybe it will all come crashing down. But considering that we’ve only lost 1 game out of 7 in 90 minutes thus far, to say we haven’t signed anybody good bar Todorov and to infer that Gallagher won’t be any good because he’s inexperienced, is IMO OTT. I would like more experienced signings also. Indeed, I’ve been banging that particular drum since last season. But I’m not prepared to write him off before I even see him play.

Of the new players we’ve signed I’d say it’s only really Dunlop who has proven not to be a Championship level player thus far. And that’s purely because for whatever reason McCabe hasn’t saw fit to use him. Maybe he doesn’t trust him yet, maybe he’s not and won’t be good enough in general. Perhaps Gallagher will be the same. But as for the rest - Todorov, Aiken and McMaster all look worthy of this level. O’Connor too, who while he has his faults, is definitely good enough to have a role in a Championship team. I suppose we can’t judge Hancock yet but he looked fine last week so hopefully he’ll also prove to be a good addition. Either way, I think it’s pointless to judge or write off the boy before we’ve even seen him play.

Signing low (wages wise) and young has worked out predominately well so far. Obviously he won’t have the benefit of a year in league 1 to get up to speed like Devenny and McMaster. But we’ve seen how far both have developed under McCabe’s tutelage, as indeed have more experienced players like Telfer, Frizzell, CalGal and Gabby. Maybe he’ll be rubbish but if he can develop into even a half-decent or useful squad player then he’ll be a good addition. It’s not exciting or glamorous but if the market we’re in is either young players or average-worse than average Championship/League 1 jobbers, I’m happy to take cheap punts like Gallagher than spend money that isn’t worth it on players who probably won’t fit into our system any better than Gallagher anyway. That being said, if Wotherspoon could decide who he wants to sign for sometime this calendar year that would be nice.

Who knows how good he’ll be. But we have done very well with young centre mids of a similar profile under McCabe. Devenny and McMaster came from the same level and have (so far) developed into two good Championship central midfielders. Obviously Gallagher is a year behind but hopefully he’ll prove to be another such gem. Rather than a young signing of the Jay Riley or Joe Dixon variety He’s also, crucially, *not* Grant Gallagher which was my first thought when the Tweet appeared on my phone.

That wasn’t very Wotherspoony.

Jobber sub goalie IMO

Pen!

First class Really hope the club go all out to acknowledge, recognise and celebrate the centenary. Events, a strip () and ideally as many of the families of the team can get involved and receive that well deserved recognition. Terrific gesture from the Spence and Davies family

In fairness, I’m not sure there should really be any expectation that he’ll play for Palace. How many academy players at these elite clubs actually do? But from their perspective, he’s a cheap punt who must tick the boxes they look for in a player, and, even if in the future they just end up selling him to a lower level in England/Scotland/Europe/rest of the world, they’ll make a profit or their money back if nothing else. While for him, he gets to develop under top class coaches in the best of facilities whilst living in one of the world‘s great cities. He’s still young enough to develop as a player and he’s been part of the Northern Ireland U21s set-up previously so he’s clearly highly-rated by coaches and managers at a decent level. I think, importantly, what might work most in his favour is that he’s already played first team football, in ‘clutch’ games for a team that got promoted. And not only that but he was a regular starter and key player. That’s something that a lot of his team mates and opponents won’t have experienced yet, or never will. And even accounting for it being Scottish League 1, he was actually good which a lot of these academy players down south who’ve played there or in the Championship weren’t. Daniel Boateng, who actually played a first team game for ARSENAL, Eoghan Stokes, Luke Lyons and Jack McKay all came through big English academies and were amongst our worst players during our decade in League 1. None of them made it, and Devenny being good in League 1 doesn’t mean he’ll make it either. But you never know, hopefully it will stand him in good stead and give him a chance of at least having a career at a decent level. He’s a good all-rounder for a midfielder. Good range of passing, athletic, he’s not a destroyer but can get stuck in and he can shoot/score goals. All the best to him, it’s a fantastic, exciting and well deserved opportunity.

Would agree with the assessment that we’re still in need of additions across the park. Centre mid is where we’ve got our most strength in depth but with McCabe injured and Devenny gone we’re cutting it pretty fine now, as one more injury in there and we’re down to playing every centre mid available. An injury to Frizzell especially and we’re fucked. Still could do with another centre-half. I did previously want a left-back but Ballantyne has been a revelation there and with him, Hancock and even Fellows I’m pretty content with our options there. If anything another right-back would be preferable IMO as if Watson is out we’d have to move Ballantyne there, which would necessitate two changes to the team rather than one direct swap. A Watson-like replacement in a player who could play centre-half and right-back would be ideal. East or O’Reilly wouldn’t fit that bill but I’d still take either if offered. I’d like another forward too as I do think we suffered in the Dunfermline game from having literally no options to change things around. IMO a forward who can play out wide, a Callum Smith replacement essentially, would be best as while I like McGregor and O’Connor, I still think we can do better. I do get the Connor Smith ‘attitude not fitting into the team’ thing that @thediamonddude mentioned but for me, his attitude and being a bit more ‘cute’ or ‘streetwise’ is actually why I think he’d be a good addition. It’s something that we lack and, while one player probably wouldn’t have made a difference in this particular game, it was one of the facets of their game that helped Ross County beat us on Saturday. Mind you, I’ve been wanting this sort of player since the start of last season and not having one hasn’t really harmed us ultimately so what do I know! Hopefully, mainly for @Passionate and @cb_diamond’s sake, we see a few pens out before Saturday As an aside, I’ve noticed that Joe Cassidy (the reserve player on the bench on Saturday) is also on the books of Consillium so that’s a good laugh if nothing else.

I hope Justin knows that I’ll remember that goal v Falkirk in the play-offs for the rest of my days. Pure bedlam from that point on https://x.com/airdrieoniansfc/status/1656071719268888577?s=46&t=ei9lEQUlqVT6IyVJquw8rQ

Justin to Crystal Palace confirmed. https://x.com/airdrieoniansfc/status/1693654223676645488?s=46&t=ei9lEQUlqVT6IyVJquw8rQ What an opportunity for the lad. All the best to him. If nothing else he’ll get to enjoy the benefits of living in London and learning from top class coaches in the best of facilities. Now let’s get that transfer fee spent.

I liked Stanway fine but McCabe, McMaster, Devenny, Aiken, Frizzell and Telfer are all considerably better than him IMO. Any additions, and especially if money is involved, should be improving or at least supplementing that mix.

Brilliant cup tie. Their ruthlessness, pace and physicality made the difference in the end but proud of the team for going head-to-head with a Premiership side. Soft goals to lose - ATS far too soft at the 3rd although other than that I thought he had a good game, and the 4th goal again too easy. But lots of positives to take from that. McMaster and Aiken outstanding in the middle of the park and Ballantyne was very good once again. That’s Gal got 3 goals in 2 games now and O’Connor made a big impact off the bench. Definitely think that’s the role for him atm. Great to have Todorov back and for Hancock to get a run out too. Didn’t see him defend much but he looks composed enough on the ball. Right enjoyed that. We won’t play many teams as physical, streetwise or quick this season so to give as good an account of ourselves against such a team is encouraging. Couldn’t put up with Malky Mackay as my club’s manager for obvious reasons. But even if that wasn’t the case, no chance could I watch his antics on the sidelines every week. Insufferable. Nothing against County historically but I wish them nothing but ill whilst he’s in charge.