Airdrie vs Dunfermline

[Poet of the Macabre]

Must win for the Pars with Forfar having a home banker against the Binos. Seem to be playing better in recent weeks and hopefully will go into this on the back of a good cup win in midweek. Otherwise it's going to more pressure back on JJ.

Hesitant prediction of 1-2.

[Larbert_Par]

Just hope we play better than we did on our last visit there - we were absolutely stinking in a 2-0 defeat.

Vital as you say to win here with Forfar playing Stirling, and us then playing Stranraer on the 20th. Rarely do we get an easy game away to Airdrie but if we want to win the title, these are simply matches we have to be winning.

I think Stuart Urquhart should be back from injury for this one, so I would imagine JJ will move Geggan back into midfield and Millen to full back. It depends what happens on Tuesday I suppose but I'd be happy to more or less go with the same team, but I would like to see Stirling on the right and Chemin on the left. I thought he showed some positives when he went on yesterday.

[DAFC.]

Think Chemin is worthy of a start. Him on the left and Stirling on the right would provide good width. Byrne played really well yesterday so he might keep Chemin out for another week unless JJ feels the need to drop Geggan entirely if Urquhart can go to CB and Millen then put back to RB. Think JJ will stick to the same midfield formation.

Airdrie only ever seem to turn up and play well against us. It's a tough ground for us to get results. If you want to win titles, these are the games you have to be grabbing by the scruff of the neck and winning, even if it is ugly. With Forfar guarenteed 3 point against a rubbish Stirling Albion side, we need to win this to keep hot on their heels.

Wonder if Ugwu will be available after picking up an injury yesterday, he was clearly still carrying last week's injury.

Buchanan to score and go tonto hopefully.

[Evil Jim Fenner]

For Airdrie fans, see below announcement and poster for next weeks' activities in case you have missed it on fb/Stomp etc. For Dunfy fans, families are more than welcome to come along to pre match activities. All free, and you and your kids will be more than welcome. For those without kids and not wanting to watch Airdrie dvd's. the normal bar at the stadium will be open, as will other pubs in Airdrie. Not expecting you to bring tins of food or toys to support the needy in Airdrie, but if you can, would be appreciated.

Lets not let the thread deteriorate into an Airdrie-Dunfermline slagfest right away either.

As for the game, going for a 2-0 Airdrie victory. Ian Westwater to fumble the 1st through his legs, and a Grant Tierney own goal.

An announcement on next weekend's festivities !

Plans have already been announced for the Aces FREE Xmas party on the Sunday, and hopefully you have all been registering your kids with Willie and Mairi.

As for Saturday, we have something special planned for before the Dunfermline Game. Lifelong fan Stephen Eaton has finally (and happily) bowed to peer pressure, and produced a compilation dvd of old Airdrie games converted from VHS. We will be showing 'The Road to Hampden - 92' - a 90 minute dvd - before the Dunfermline game next Saturday at 12.45 in the Rowan Suite. I have had a sneek peek, and it is brilliant quality bringing back lots of memories. If this is a succees, Stephen has enough footage for approximately 4-5 dvd's, so we would hope to repeat the event at future games.

While all this is going on, we will again have the various events going on for the Aces. Training outside with Peter and Gordon Thomson, Scott Black, and their merry band of helpers; while inside, we will have arts and crafts, face painting and dvd's led by Lorna Logan and her happy cohorts.

Usually, all these activities are free. However, next week we have a twist which we hope will be well supported by you all.

We have partnered up with Airdrie Foodbank and the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser's Toy Appeal - two great local charities/campaigns that we want to help as much as possible and continue to cement our position in the town as a Community Club.

We would ask everyone attending on Saturday and Sunday to bring donations to support these great causes. We are aware that there are probably those amongst our support who actually rely on these charities, so there won't be a big finger of guilt pointed if you can't give, but whether it's a 20p tin of beans, or a toy out the pound shop, it would be greatly appreciated and go a long way to making some people's Christmas that little bit happier.

We will have collection points in both bars, and hopefully at the turnstiles for those who can't make the pre match event.

This - along with the Save the Children Campaign - rounds off a great year for us all. Please come along to all the events and bring what you can.

Support the Team. Support the Trust. Support the Town.

[DAFC]

Last game at Airdrie we were terrible, couldn't cope with Lister at all.

Think I'll give the DVD a miss, as it probably contains a few bad memories!

If there's a collection at the game I would be happy to contribute though. Good luck.

Not for the game though hope we horse you.

[parsforlife]

Why are you using footage of another club? Is that because the current airdrie don't have any success to speak of?

[Evil Jim Fenner]

DAFC - cheers for the reply. Toys/food/cash all appreciated. And there is two bars at the ground, so you can give the dvd a miss. Would re-iterate, if folk are coming through with kids, all are welcome. Lets you get a pint in peace.

parsforlife. Thanks for getting that out the way nice and early.

[parsforlife]

parsforlife. Thanks for getting that out the way nice and early.

No problems. It had to be said and we may as well get it over and done with.

As for the event, leaving aside the old club/new club stuff its good to see engagement with your local community, helping local charities etc, tho given recent events it may be a good idea not to support save the children again.

[Johnny Martins Willy]

Can't help but feel the trusts work will go to waste. All the effort into giving young kids free season tickets and working in the local community to become a community club isn't going to be effective if the product on the park is what we have now.

As for the game i'm expecting a narrow loss or a scrappy draw. We don't have enough goals in our squad to cover our weak defence. Dunfermline beat us 3-0 last time but i think this one will be much closer. I don't think we have anything to fear from this Dunfermline side who appear to have been found so far this season. We have improved our squad since the 3-0 defeat and Dunfermline appear to have gone backwards. Both teams have massively underachieved this season and a win here for either team could turn their season around and a defeat could do the opposite. I would enjoy beating Dunfermline as they have been a laughing stock the past few seasons with their continuing failures and I would enjoy seeing them failing to win the league.

The optimist in me says 2-1 with a Neil McCann pitch invasion and a poet of the macabre thread closure. The realist in me says 1-1 or 1-2.

[HoBNob]

Aye, cracking idea from Airdrie, hope it's a success.

Watching this on pars TV so if you could kindly just rollover and take it, that'd be nice.

[airdrieman]

Narrow defeat. Hope the charity initiatives go well and will provide what support I can.

[DAFC]

Would be good to see Pars, Airdrie, Falkirk and Raith in the same league again all fighting for top spot.

Do Airdrie fans think you will ever get the crowds back? You seem to attract some good young players but then the team falls apart. Is this lack of investment or ambition?

[Pesadilla]

Airdrie to win this one comfortably.

Massive pressure to be heaped on Jeffries. A series of meltdowns on this thread and the JJ must go one.

Nice.

[parsforlife]

Would be good to see Pars, Airdrie, Falkirk and Raith in the same league again all fighting for top spot.

Do Airdrie fans think you will ever get the crowds back? You seem to attract some good young players but then the team falls apart. Is this lack of investment or ambition?

Why Airdrie? Rovers and Falkirk bring crowds and exciting derby games, Airdrie bring nothing, there are plenty of other clubs I'd rather be sharing a division with

[Johnny Martins Willy]

Would be good to see Pars, Airdrie, Falkirk and Raith in the same league again all fighting for top spot.

Do Airdrie fans think you will ever get the crowds back? You seem to attract some good young players but then the team falls apart. Is this lack of investment or ambition?

Both.

It's not really a shock our crowds have fallen to what they are now. We have had many years of overwhelming failure. The relationship between fans and the club is very poor also. This summer Ballantyne led fans to believe we were going to be playing home matches at Cliftonhill in future seasons. I believe failure is in the interest of the chairman because less investment is needed to compete the further we fall and some fans seem to now accept survival in this league as a successful season much to the delight of the chairman. Football is an entertainment business and Airdrie are not worth the £16 entrance fee so crowds have fallen as casual fans head along less and less. If we were challenging at the top of this league it would be a very different story but that isn't going to happen at Airdrie due to our present setup.

Similar could happen to your club if you fail to go up this season. Dunfermline have a very talented squad but haven't assembled one that I believe will win this league. They no doubt have the most talented players at this level by far but they seem to be unable to acquire a squad that can win important games against similar quality teams: Alloa, Cowdenbeath, Morton, Stranraer, Forfar. Games against this level of club has shown the lack of character in the Dunfermline squad (or Jim Jeffries) to win big games against more challenging opponents but they can put on an entertaining display and show their real talent against outfits like Stirling Albion and Airdrie as shown in the games at EEP against these two sides (even if they did fail to beat an already relegated terrible Airdrie side on the last day of the season to stay up in the championship giving more evidence of their lack of character in big matches).

If Dunfermline fail to go up this season they could easily become part-time league one dross like us within a few years as part-time football or risky money throwing would surely be the only two options for the following seasons all or nothing approach.

[HoBNob]

Considering that we both got relegated the same year, how do our attendances stack up? While I'm not saying it's impossible for our attendances to drop to Airdrie levels of horrendous failure, it would take quite a while yet.

We probably will win promotion tbh, Morton have Duffy which is pretty nice.

[Pesadilla]

Considering that we both got relegated the same year, how do our attendances stack up? While I'm not saying it's impossible for our attendances to drop to Airdrie levels of horrendous failure, it would take quite a while yet.

We probably will win promotion tbh, Morton have Duffy which is pretty nice.

That's comparing apples and pears.

We've never had the crowd which Dunfermline have had. In the last ten years you've been in the top flight and still (however fantastical the idea seems) harbour ambitions of getting back there.

We've seen a systematic decline of the club in terms of investment and engagement with our board. We've seen the worst football dished out season after season whilst still paying top dollar for it.

Personally, I don't think Dunfy will sink to the levels that we have, however, failing to win the league this year, followed by part time football could conceivably see crowds drift down to 12-1500 level, which would make the prospect of a return to FT football a difficult one.

[Parscelona]

So we're going to lose half our average attendance in the space of a season?

Nope, not buying that one.

[Johnny Martins Willy]

Considering that we both got relegated the same year, how do our attendances stack up? While I'm not saying it's impossible for our attendances to drop to Airdrie levels of horrendous failure, it would take quite a while yet.

We probably will win promotion tbh, Morton have Duffy which is pretty nice.

If you read into my post that I thought Dunfermline would sink to crowds of our level then you must be dim. I would never expect Dunfermline to fall to crowds of sub 800 in league one. They have a much larger support and fan base by far and have had much more success in recent history. Even 5 years ago in the championship we struggled to get crowds of 1,200 against lesser teams.

To spell it out for you: It may fall in relation to the size of the support.

Are you referring to the same Jim Duffy side who have turned you over twice this season now in 6 pointers with a weaker squad? Have Dunfermline even won a game against any of their challengers this season from the top 4 or do they just bottle it in big games every time one comes around as history would show?

[Johnny Martins Willy]

So we're going to lose half our average attendance in the space of a season?

Nope, not buying that one.

^^^ Typical pars fan hiding behind attendances to mask his clubs massive failures

Nobody said it would happen in one season. It didn't happen to us over one season. If Dunfermline fail to go up and go part-time they would likely turn into league one dross and would pose no real promotion threat. After prolonged seasons in this dire division crowds would drop and drop which is what happened at us.