Mr November

Excellent performance from Airdrie. Solid defensively, moved the ball well and probably should have scored more from Hancock’s crosses. Hard to fault any individuals too much. Even after bringing McKay on Inverness didn’t offer too much. They’re not the worst team I’ve seen this season but didn’t really have any ideas going forward. I didn’t realise how poor a run they’re on. Having Duncan Ferguson in charge is a good laugh when it’s going well but the passion merchant shtick wears a bit thin when you’re losing games.

This time last year we had just lost 5-3 at home to Edinburgh City and were mid-table in League One. What a difference to be sitting fourth in the Championship after a great win and performance. I think McCabe deserves a lot of credit for changing shape in the last three games. It was pretty clear that the 4-3-3 wasn’t working recently. He switched to a diamond against Morton and while we didn’t ever look like scoring we did play alright and looked pretty solid defensively. We went back to a 4-3-3 at Hampden and were miles off it but seemed to click when he went to a diamond with McGregor up front and dominated the last half hour. It worked really well today too, seems to get a bit more out of our forwards, allows us to move the ball quicker and we’ve been solid defensively too. Our crosses were excellent today, something we’ve done nowhere near enough of this season, if we can keep that up the goals from open play will hopefully come. I’ve been critical of both, albeit with the caveat that our style of play hasn’t suited them at all, but diamond seems to get more out of Todorov and McGill in particular. I’d love for McGill to kick on a bit so hopefully this is the role for him. I’m warming to Todorov now we’re playing a style which suits him more and he’s much more of a wideo than I expected which is a good laugh.

Pretty much yeah. Inverness have been fine but clearly miss Wotherspoon and McKay. We’ve had plenty of the ball and have put in more crosses today than the rest of the season combined, just no one on the end of them unfortunately.

I think McCabe said Ballantyne would be out for about six weeks in the pre-match interview before the Stranraer game, so guessing the Dunfermline game at best? Ballantyne is our best all-round full back and it’ll be great having him back but we haven’t missed him as much as I feared when Megwa and Hancock are both available. Those three are probably as good as you’ll realistically get for full-back options on our budget, with Watson capable too. Having two of them unavailable is a blow though. I did notice Hibs right back got called up for the Asian Cup so could see Megwa going back for a month or so and then rejoining later on but that uncertainty wouldn’t be ideal.

Away car park is £3 I think. I guess Inverness fans will be at the far end of the main stand, so just a question of paying or walking a few minutes.

Nope. Always the chance they introduce some but was still fine last week.

I’ve seen Queen’s Park a few times this season now and Thomson has always been the standout, whether that’s at the back or in midfield. Strong, powerful, moves the ball well and a good range of passing. I’d be surprised if some bottom half teams in the league above weren’t keeping an eye on him.

Definitely some interesting games. Wotherspoon went off injured for Inverness yesterday, so it would be a big boost if he’s not playing on Tuesday. We’ve done very well against Raith this season, two very tight games and we’re still the only team to beat them. Dunfermline have lots of key injuries just now but they could have Jim Leishman and Sammy the Tammy up front and they’d still take points off us. It’s amazing how much better you feel about these games though after a last minute winner.

Airdrieonians 2-1 Inverness Arbroath 0-2 Dundee United Dunfermline 0-1 Raith Rovers Morton 1-0 Ayr Partick Thistle 3-0 Queen’s Park

Think the last time we scored from a corner was Todorov at Raith? I think that and Watson at Dunfermline might be the only ones this season though. We’ve both been critical of Todorov but as you say, he took that goal really well. I’ll be delighted if he kicks on a bit now and proves me wrong.

Nikolay Todorov. Never doubted him! Watching that second half today did make me think that our best performances over the last few months have been with him up front. I'm still unconvinced by him (that miss!) but the rest of the team seem to play a bit quicker and more direct when he's on the park which stops the slow, sideways stuff from dominating too much. Even as a Gallagher stan I'd go with Todorov and McGill up front on Tuesday. Hopefully that win gives us a huge confidence boost ahead of a couple of tough but winnable home games next week. The league is so tight between 4th-10th so any decent run would really help to open up a gap.

If you said to me after watching Jay Riley's (remember him?) disasterclass during our first game of 2023 that we'd finish it by scoring a last minute winner at the national stadium to move up to fifth in the Championship I'd have jumped at it. Been plenty of ups and downs as usual but what a class year for Airdrie all in. Scoring a ridiculous number of goals in the first half of 2023, scudding Falkirk 7-2 in the play-offs, finally winning them, good cup runs and then despite some of the well discussed issues recently (which are still true) being a pretty competitive Championship team. Still a long way to go this season but as far as calendar years go it's been our best for a long time.

I fear Nikolay Todorov has cost me my home but what a good laugh that was. A massive win for us and a pretty demoralising one for QP. I thought the first half was rotten. Two poor teams lacking confidence and scared to do anything positive, if it wasn’t for Rae fouling Longridge then neither team were scoring. Airdrie looked much better after half time though, much quicker in our play and more aggressive too. That seemed to spook Queen’s Park a bit and other than that very late McKinstry shot never caused any real issues, they seemed content to play for the point. Paton was pretty isolated but it’s very telling that there’s no option for him to play beside or to replace him when he’s not in the game. Great scenes at the end, Todorov more than making up for that dreadful miss earlier. It feels like it’s been a while since we had one of them. I think come the end of the season both teams will be near the bottom so stretching that gap is massive.

Yeah definitely a bit frosty out and about. The car park was surprisingly fine when I cut through it on my way to asda this morning (before the snow), so fingers crossed the pitch is fine. I might regret saying that in a few hours right enough.

Rae does seem to save (most of) his bizarre moments for playing Dunfermline to be fair. He does get caught out at times playing out from the back, which will always happen at this level, but is generally very good at it and while it’s improved a lot recently his decision making in one on ones can be poor at times. For whatever reason he doesn’t do the charging out his box stuff as much against other teams. It’s easy to forget that he’s still a fairly young keeper too, I think he’ll go on to have a decent career and I do think he has the potential to play in the league above at some point. It’s hard for Dunfermline fans to fully judge him though given he does something daft literally every time we play each other.

Dundee United 1-0 Partick Thistle Ayr 1-1 Dunfermline Inverness 1-1 Morton Queen’s Park 1-1 Airdrie Raith Rovers 2-1 Arbroath

Spot on. I think 10 of the last 13 games between them have been draws after 90 minutes, with four of the last five games being 1-1 after 90 minutes. Two teams who really need a win, both very capable of finding a way to lose to the other, but get the mortgage on another 1-1.

Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy The National - Laugh Track Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd Deathcrash - Less Daughter - Stereo Mind Game Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman... The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein Sufjan Stevens - Javelin Barry Can't Swim - When Will We Land? Nation of Language - Strange Disciple

Get Ian Murray playing Robert Duvall’s character in an A Shot at Glory remake imo.

Aiken playing for at least 45 minutes: W4 (Partick Thistle, Inverness, Raith, Morton) D1 (Queen’s Park) L3 (Dundee United x2, Ayr) Aiken playing for less than 45 minutes or not at all: W1 (Arbroath) D2 (Raith, Morton) L6 (Dunfermline x2, Arbroath, Inverness, Partick Thistle, Ayr) I think it’s more because of the lack of pace and mobility without him but we really shouldn’t be so reliant on one loanee for that.

I thought Telfer was fine last week, probably our best midfielder, but yeah he struggled today. I think that was largely down to his position rather than fitness though, he’s too immobile to cover out wide the way he had to today.

Today wasn’t quite as bad, which says a lot about that game, but I’m blaming you for summoning the spirit of Dumbarton 0-1 Airdrie during lockdown last night.

Does anyone know why we seem to refuse to have a tall player marking opposition strikers at set-pieces this month? It might have been going on longer but we had Megwa marking Diack in the Thistle game which cost a goal, McCabe (I think) marking Dowds last week and completely losing him which also cost a goal and then today we had McCabe marking Muirhead at long throws and corners. We do have a pretty small team so are often going to be outmatched in these situations but it feels quite an odd setup to me.

I thought the midfield was our biggest issue today. Defensively we were largely fine, usual couple of dodgy moments but no real complaints. Telfer and Frizzell were a bit too slow to play wider roles in a diamond last season and that was the case again today, Frizzell in particular had plenty of opportunities to carry the ball forward in wide areas but always chose to turn back inside. McMaster had a fairly poor game and while McStravick had some nice moments, as a whole they never controlled even parts of the game. I thought Gallagher and McGill were alright in the first half. Definitely not great but both worked hard and McGill looked better as a nuisance forward who could win high balls and push their defence back a bit. He looked better there than as an outright winger which he’s had to be throughout this season. O’Connor did nothing when he came on and while Todorov won a couple of headers I never felt we were going to score.

Fair play to Morton, we’ve only had two 0-0’s under McCabe and both have been against them. Not the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon. There was no real quality in the first half but I actually quite enjoyed it, as much because of relief that the game was played at a fairly decent tempo and wasn’t just 70% aimless Airdrie possession. I think @Dunning1874’s summary above is spot on. The second half was pretty dire though, felt like if either team showed some quality they’d win it but nobody really looked capable of anything spectacular. Definitely not Airdrie’s worst performance in recent weeks but still the same issues unfortunately.