Mr November

A good win marred by Watson’s stupidity at the end. Hamilton started better and looked stronger physically but I thought we came into the game a bit more. The first goal was always going to be key and I felt Hamilton fell out the game after that. They got weaker with every sub too and never really looked like scoring. Airdrie weren’t at their best but I’ll take the win. We panicked a bit in the final third and rushed things when we didn’t need to. Watson is the weakest of our back four but possibly the hardest to replace in terms of position, physicality and strength. I like him but he is prone to stupid mistakes and that could be a very costly one tonight. Absolutely no need for it. All to play for on Saturday now. It’s great to be going there with an advantage but I can’t say I’m fully confident.

Was just coming on to post the same thing. ATS could maybe sit as a very narrow left back, or even McCabe on the right, but both could be exposed for a lack of pace. It’s a tough decision but I’d rather not play Deveney in such a big game.

That may well be the best signing Queens make for next season. For his age he was fantastic in the five games he played at the start of the season, making numerous great saves. His only obvious weaknesses were kicking, which can improve, and having absolutely no clue how to deal with a long throw, and he probably hadn’t faced many of them at youth level. I think he’s got a very high ceiling and rate him higher than Dabrowski. I fancy Queens to do well next year, I just hope we’re not around to see it!

Yeah that’s the one. Losing that game and the atmosphere around the stadium that day is ultimately probably the best thing that’s happened to us in the last decade. I know even now we’re not exactly giants like Falkirk but the crowd looks depressingly small on the highlights for that game.

The very same. I was just about to say that the Hamilton fans reminded me of that Cove game when Seref Zengin was there with (I think) Colin McGowan and Jim Ballantyne. A poisonous atmosphere that day, though I do still laugh at the story of Ballantyne flashing his rolex at someone. It goes back to what we were talking about in our thread yesterday. For all some people aren't keen on them for whatever reason, the current board are miles better than those charlatans. I dread to think where we'd be now if Zengin had took over.

I suspect he’ll get a Championship club no bother. Given the lack of decent strikers at that level, I’m sure most teams would happily offer a young, energetic forward with a good record at a lower level a deal. Only one player out of ten signed players under the age of 30 is wild, especially when half of them have been signed by Hartley and the one ‘young’ player is Morgyn Neill. It’s a solid group of players to build from but a big job this summer to inject some pace and excitement into that team.

Delighted for Gallagher. To be honest I love him far more than a grown man should love any lower league Scottish footballer and I’m delighted he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves. He’s been a great player for us over the last three seasons, despite the Jordan Allan truthers not being convinced, and as I’ve said many times people really underestimate the value of a regular goal scorer. He’s really stepped up his game this season and has gone from being a top end League One striker to probably one of the better lower league forwards overall. All four nominees have had great seasons but I think Gallagher is a well deserved winner.

I feel like Todorov might be a decent option? He scored a decent number of goals for Dunfermline given he was often a sub and would provide a real presence up front, which Falkirk definitely lack. I know he didn’t do that well at Falkirk previously but neither did most players that season.

I was thinking about this yesterday and even before Murray the board backed Findlay in their first January window to bring in Carrick, Duffy etc., before giving him the security of a permanent contract and an ostensibly decent budget in the summer to bring in an average League One select. They then quickly realised that it wasn’t working and brought Murray in after a quarter and stuck by him on multiple occasions when I think it would be fair to say a majority of fans wanted him gone. No board is ever going to be perfect but I’ve seen enough now to trust their judgement on footballing decisions. Having a proven record of supporting managers and giving them time can only be a good thing going forward too. It’s night and day from the chaos of the Wotherspoon era and a clear step up professionally from the Boyle/Bollan years.

I would agree with this. Fair to say both Airdrie and Queens improved massively when they were able to play much better keepers. My earlier post possibly sounded a lot harsher on Rae than I intended to be fair, as I do think he’s the best keeper we’ve had for ages and would be a huge loss if he was to leave in the summer.

Fair enough, I know he was linked with Carlisle for a while and that seemingly fell through. I thought I’d read that was more on their end but that might explain it.

I think Rae is a very good keeper but nobody better than us wanted him last summer after a seemingly good season at Queen of the South. I’m not sure spending half a season injured and then getting sent off twice will do enough for a bigger club to come in for him just yet. Likewise, I’d be delighted to have Jamieson in. He’s been a very solid lower league keeper for years now and seems like a good, experienced professional. As you say, he seemed to enjoy yesterday almost as much as us!

Hopefully it’s Callum Smith’s turn to win this one after Connor won last year. I think Accies will be in the stand opposite the main one, which generally makes for a better atmosphere. We did that for Cove and Queen’s Park last season. I feel oddly ok about this at the moment, though I have no doubt the usual fear will kick in very soon. We’ve seen two sides to this Airdrie team over the semi-finals. A ridiculously clinical first half against Falkirk, strong defensive resolve to hold out a man down at 5-2 and then a very comfortable, compact performance yesterday, with McCabe knowing exactly what McGlynn would do throughout. The big question is whether we can continue that for another two games. Not having played extra time and requiring a momentous performance to win the semi-final second leg like the last two years can only help too. Given the performances over the season, particularly the last quarter and the semi-finals, I think we have to be confident going into this, though equally wary that it’s Airdrie in a play-off final and Hamilton might have a bit more about them than some expected after yesterday. I can’t say I’ve seen much of Hamilton this season but sometimes a result like that can be a catalyst for going on a run. I’m expecting a much tougher game than the semi-finals anyway. Hopefully this is the year we can do it.

Maybury is a weird one. He did well to get Edinburgh promoted straight after coming in and obviously had a great start to this season but they only picked up 13 points from their last 16 games. With Mutch, Craigen and Robertson already away, I reckon they’ll struggle next season. Allan Johnston seems the obvious shout for me. Admittedly I didn’t want him anywhere near the Airdrie job last summer but his one skill of comfortably winning League One when he has by far the biggest budget seems an ideal fit for Falkirk next season. Deal with him being out of his depth in the Championship later, just get there first.

Even from the outside I agree. I enjoy laughing at Falkirk TV as much as anyone else but Lewis just seems like someone who really loves Falkirk and fair play to anyone willing to spend a decent amount of their time, and be less involved in being a fan, for nothing in return. Have a laugh at his commentary but every lower league Scottish club has a few fans like him and that’s a good thing.

He was very solid. Made all the saves you’d expect and slowed the game down when it was needed. I think emergency loans are for a minimum of 7 days, so I assume he’ll be eligible for Wednesday night. It seems like Josh Rae will be back though so suspect he’ll come straight back in.

When you consider some of the nonsense we’ve seen this season, I think today’s performance was arguably more impressive than Tuesday night. We’ve struggled to be compact at times but McCabe got it spot on today. Let Falkirk have plenty of the ball, try and stop the crosses and don’t let them run in behind. I never felt like Falkirk were going to score and bar a few balls into the box in the first half, for all their possession they rarely threatened. McCabe and Ballantyne were the two best players on the park once again.

This is now a Darren Jamieson’s time wasting fan account.

I can’t believe he still has a year on his contract, feels like he’s been there for years now. I’m sure you feel even worse about it.

I see both Hibs players are with McNamara’s agency

We play a very expansive, attacking 4-3-3 at the moment with the wide forwards pushing very high and the two advanced midfielders finding pockets of space. I’m guessing O’Connor might be used out wide and Aiken through the middle based on that? It’s a weird time to announce the signings but I do think whatever league we’re in we’ll be an attractive club for loans, as teams will want players playing in his style of football.

Some good behind the goals stuff here. Burrell in the wall at the second goal Nelson Muntz being heard at the penalty just before the chorus of boos kick in

Helpful as ever, cheers!

I posted similar on the match thread but as an Airdrie fan who was at that Queen’s Park game, last night was miles worse from Falkirk. I felt Falkirk caused a lot of their own issues in that Queen’s Park game, embarrassingly poor on the ball and just gifting goals away. Last night was different as I didn’t think the goals came from mistakes, instead Falkirk just looked powerless to stop Airdrie every time they went forward and to be honest didn’t seem interested in trying. I’ve seen a lot of bad Airdrie performances in the play-offs but I’ve never seen anything quite like that.