Mr November

There’s usually four nominees for player of the year isn’t there? Todd, Benedictus, Paton and Gallagher seem like a solid group for that.

Bring Dylan Easton and Kyle Turner home. In all seriousness, Nikolay Todorov is an interesting one. He’s maybe not a great fit for our style of play and I suspect he’ll het better offers but he’s done very well against us this season. McCabe and Fordyce have seemed quite scared of him in every game, could see them trying to bring him in.

We managed to sign up most of the part-time regulars during that spell as well as Fordyce, Crighton etc and oddly Patrick Pyott. That is the way to do things, build on a solid core and look to steadily improve, it’d be great if we can continue that this summer. I remember when Watson’s new deal was announced last summer he said he’d signed it a while ago. I’m not normally one to criticise the club’s announcements but I don’t see any reason why new contracts can’t be announced before the end of the season, every other club seems fine doing it. I agree on Byrd and McGregor. I’m not fully convinced by McGregor yet but I’d keep for next season anyway as he definitely has some useful assets. Byrd less so, but I suppose it’s early days.

Tam O'Brien style five year deal please.

The cup game at the start of the season adds to how bizarre it is too. It was a 1-1 draw but I think we hit the woodwork twice, missed a penalty plus plenty of other chances. They looked a poor team that night held together by Fontaine at the back, so for them to go and pump us in the next three games was unthinkable. There’s been mitigating circumstances in the two home games with Ballantyne’s red card and Jay Riley being woefully out of his depth but even so, baffling games that make even less sense as the season goes on.

Airdrieonians 2-0 Dunfermline Athletic Alloa Athletic 1-1 Falkirk Edinburgh 2-2 Kelty Hearts Peterhead 1-1 Clyde Queen of the South 2-0 Montrose

I thought putting him there was more appropriate, even if Brian Rice prefers Kevin Cawley in there

@David Fernández Hogarth is a great shout actually, been really impressed by him every time we’ve played Alloa. He’s not the biggest but he looks very good for his age and stopped both of the games in Airdrie being won by even bigger margins.

I’ve tried to pick based off games I’ve seen and opinions on here: Mehmet Taggart - Benedictus - Fontaine - Edwards McGill - Matty Todd - Frizzell - Morrison Gallagher - Paton I don’t think Mehmet is that great but neither is anyone else and you can’t argue with that clean sheet record. Benedictus and Edwards both very easy picks at the back. I thought Rowe was excellent for Falkirk in the game at Airdrie in February but he was poor yesterday. Comrie and Craigen both contenders too but Taggart steady as ever all season. I think Coll Donaldson is a good player but he’s not been at his best against Airdrie whereas Liam Fontaine has looked imperious every time we’ve played Edinburgh. No Airdrie defenders in contention on principle after some of the goals we’ve conceded. Morrison and Matty Todd both obvious picks in midfield. Gabby McGill’s form over the last few months edges him ahead of Ritchie-Hosler, who I have been very impressed by. I like Josh Todd at Queens but Frizzell edges it for the last midfield spot. John Robertson has had a great season but Gallagher and Paton are the obvious two here.

I see that’s the end of year awards voting up. I’ve went for Gallagher POTY, McGill YPOTY and Gallagher v Kelty for the goal. I suspect those will be the winners too.

Oddly enough, we’d say the same thing in reverse! What are Falkirk fans thoughts about the semi-final? Obviously form has dropped off massively since losing at East End Park but you’d think the players would be right up for it at the moment, as making sure they’re in the team against Inverness and then play-offs is a great incentive. Inverness seem to be hitting form at the right time but it’s certainly a game Falkirk have a good chance of winning.

I feel like Smith has always done that, even though he does put a shift in I’ve certainly noticed him ducking out of challenges before. I’ve said for a while I think he’ll be at Raith next season though, less travelling for him and Murray loves him.

I had the fear when we got the penalty, as our record is woeful, but delighted to see Gallagher finally take one and score it. I think that’s him up to 21 for the season now? A fantastic record and a clear player of the year winner for me.

A draw probably a fair result in the end. I think both teams should look at that as two points dropped but ultimately the four games have shown the teams are pretty evenly matched and it’s just a case of who is on their game more. We were miles off it first half, everything was very slow and nowhere near our usual tempo. Falkirk did well to stop us building from the back and dominated midfield but they didn’t create too many clear chances outside of the goal. We looked a different team second half, playing more of our usual style and for a 10-15 minute spell Falkirk couldn’t handle our movement and tempo. Frizzell in particular was fantastic, probably his best game since his pre-injury form at the start of the season. It was a shame to concede at the end, as I didn’t see it coming, but not too fussed overall. I’d rather finish 3rd and have Falkirk at home first, or 4th and play the Championship team, but the main outcome of today was ensuring our play-off spot and barring a disaster that looks very likely now.

Feel like our midfield are going man for man a lot, with McMaster following Kucheriayvi all over the pitch in particular. It hasn’t worked though and while Falkirk have done well to stop us playing out from the back, we’ve been woeful in possession and so slow all over the park. Falkirk well ahead and probably feel like they should have scored more.

Really interested to see how this works out at Raith. I’m sure pretty much every Airdrie fan would say Murray’s recruiment when we had Stuart Millar as director of football was a mixed bag at best, yet it was generally great on his own. I suppose John Potter, if that is the kind of role he’s in, probably won’t be lumbering him with Thomas Robert and Harlain Mbayo though.

I see Michael Tidser will be Kelty’s new manager next season. Maybe we’ve started a new trend in appointing deep-lying midfielders as manager!

There does seem to be a good balance in the starting 11 at the moment too. Rae, McMaster, Devenny, McGill and Smith are all fairly young, with Frizzell and Gallagher at good ages too. The defence is pretty interesting though. Watson, Fordyce, ATS and Ballantyne is as experienced a defence as you'll get at this level with all of them still being at a decent age. It seems to be a good mix at the moment.

One of the first things he did at Airdrie, much to the dismay of most of our support for some reason, was punt Joao Victoria. Fair play to him, the man is not keen on not very good wide players who can only cut inside and have one good patch of form every few years. Has he tried a back three at Raith yet? I realise that having a squad half made up of attacking midfielders doesn't exactly lend itself to that but Murray absolutely loved turning to a back three at random times and did so for prolonged spells in every season at Airdrie, with mixed success. The highlight was when he spent all summer in his last season clearly building a team to play 3-5-2, playing it throughout the League Cup and then completely abandoning it one game into the season after being pumped 3-0 at home by Montrose. I suppose that might have been enough to put him off the idea.

Telfer has been fine this season to be fair. He puts in more of a shift than I expected and was one of our best players across November to January. He really struggled after missing the penalty in the last game between us and was abysmal at Queens the week after but he’s been better than I expected. We’re a better without him as we’re more suited to playing high energy in midfield but he did well coming on last week when we needed a bit more calmness and control in midfield.

I’m really looking forward to this game. I think both teams are pretty evenly matched, with whoever is at their best very capable of hammering the other. Am I right in thinking Falkirk have played a diamond in their last two games? I think both teams are strong in using width in attack, with Morrison and Kennedy for Falkirk and McGill and Smith for Airdrie being very good at fine pockets of space to run into and cause problems. We played a diamond in the last game against Falkirk and looked excellent while on top but incredibly exposed as soon as Falkirk realised there was lots of space for Rowe and McCann to drive into. I wonder if we could see the reverse on Saturday on what is a pretty big pitch. It’s another big test for this Airdrie team. They were excellent at Alloa in similar circumstances a few weeks ago and defended well against Montrose last week too. A solid defensive performances and no calamitous mistakes would go a long way to giving me confidence ahead of the likely play-off encounter between the league’s two biggest bottlers.

Equally the final showed that sometimes it doesn’t matter too much. I actually think I’d rather have Falkirk at home first, I’d fancy us more in that to take a win into the second leg in front of a massive but nervous crowd.

Clyde 1-1 Edinburgh Dunfermline 1-0 Queen of the South Falkirk 1-1 Airdrieonians Kelty Hearts 0-2 Alloa Athletic Montrose 2-1 Peterhead

Agreed, I think Watson has been better at right-back for us than Ballantyne has been this season. Thinking back to the last trip to Falkirk, I don't remember ATS doing anything, which I think is a good sign, whereas Watson needlessly shoved two Falkirk players and possibly should have been sent off. He's a very solid League One right-back, or maybe right of a back three, but definitely not as a centre-back.

A few of us have been ATS truthers for a while now. He didn’t do too much wrong when he played earlier this season and he’s been excellent since coming back in recently. He’s obviously not the player he was but you can tell he’s played at a good level. Fordyce seems to play much better beside him too, probably helped knowing ATS is the calmest man in the stadium whereas Watson and Byrd can be pretty erratic. I’m a big fan of his whole demeanour to be honest and him being an international for Antigua and Barbuda just adds to it.