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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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For me the game against Clyde showed up a couple of things that are pretty obvious to us all. Quality up front will always edge out tight games and so it proved with Goodwillie. Also Johnston in midfield for them was far superior to any of ours in driving forward and creating chances. I think i'm right in stating that we would be serious contenders if those guys were in our side.

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57 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

I'd say that McKay is the weakest player in our starting 11 and bringing in a better midfielder would improve our team if we can do it, but McKay is still useful as a player that can cover a few positions. Agree that the long throws haven't offered too much and wouldn't be missed. As for Kerr he's a young lad and I don't think there's anything wrong with the fact he hasn't played too often. Would hope to keep him as I think he's a very good prospect and I like that's he a centre back that's extremely comfortable on the ball. Playing him in midfield is an interesting idea but the one time he played at right back due to injuries he looked very uncomfortable so maybe he'd have a similar problem in midfield.

McKay is one of the top earners maybe why picked every week has he always played midfield or was he brought in for 3 at the back. Anyway regardless of the results on Sat we are going into the new year in a good position and historically December has always been a bad month for us so positive head on for the new year.

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McKay is very raw - especially for a 23 year old - but he's very little first team football and I'm not convinced even he knows what his best position is. I don't think many defensive midfielders in our division would have been able to do what he did to score our opener against Falkirk - won the ball near the halfway line, gave it to Roberts then got himself into the box to head it in. Compare that to recent seasons - Grant Gallagher, Kyle Hutton, etc wouldn't be helping us win that game. The goals from long throws have also been vital in the good run we've had.

I'd suggest the main issue with our midfield is that it's a very fragile balance - McKay sitting needs Millar to cover him, Millar in a more free role needs both McKay to be disciplined and Roberts to provide the spark, and Roberts needs someone to do the dirty work. Any one of the 3 missing and I think we'd look weaker - as we've seen.

We also, with Smith and Carrick being in for their work rate, lack a wee bit of creativity. Unfortunately Hawkshaw and Reilly haven't been able to show much and Thomson has been injured - I'd also hope we can replace Euan O'Reilly in January and get another attacker in. Ultimately, it's the first January in a long time we've even been in with a shout and I think a couple of signings would let us see the ambition of Murray and the board. 

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7 hours ago, TheBuckfastTriangle said:

McKay is very raw - especially for a 23 year old - but he's very little first team football and I'm not convinced even he knows what his best position is. I don't think many defensive midfielders in our division would have been able to do what he did to score our opener against Falkirk - won the ball near the halfway line, gave it to Roberts then got himself into the box to head it in. Compare that to recent seasons - Grant Gallagher, Kyle Hutton, etc wouldn't be helping us win that game. The goals from long throws have also been vital in the good run we've had.

I'd suggest the main issue with our midfield is that it's a very fragile balance - McKay sitting needs Millar to cover him, Millar in a more free role needs both McKay to be disciplined and Roberts to provide the spark, and Roberts needs someone to do the dirty work. Any one of the 3 missing and I think we'd look weaker - as we've seen.

We also, with Smith and Carrick being in for their work rate, lack a wee bit of creativity. Unfortunately Hawkshaw and Reilly haven't been able to show much and Thomson has been injured - I'd also hope we can replace Euan O'Reilly in January and get another attacker in. Ultimately, it's the first January in a long time we've even been in with a shout and I think a couple of signings would let us see the ambition of Murray and the board. 

I'm sure the manager has sent Santa a letter and we can look forward to the new year. Talking to a Falkirk fan in work reckons the were lucky to win at Montrose and maybe the Clyde result will give us a kick in the butt to sharpen up. We are in a good position but couple fresh faces would be good to push on in the new year...

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6 hours ago, TheBuckfastTriangle said:

McKay is very raw - especially for a 23 year old - but he's very little first team football and I'm not convinced even he knows what his best position is. I don't think many defensive midfielders in our division would have been able to do what he did to score our opener against Falkirk - won the ball near the halfway line, gave it to Roberts then got himself into the box to head it in. Compare that to recent seasons - Grant Gallagher, Kyle Hutton, etc wouldn't be helping us win that game. The goals from long throws have also been vital in the good run we've had.

I'd suggest the main issue with our midfield is that it's a very fragile balance - McKay sitting needs Millar to cover him, Millar in a more free role needs both McKay to be disciplined and Roberts to provide the spark, and Roberts needs someone to do the dirty work. Any one of the 3 missing and I think we'd look weaker - as we've seen.

We also, with Smith and Carrick being in for their work rate, lack a wee bit of creativity. Unfortunately Hawkshaw and Reilly haven't been able to show much and Thomson has been injured - I'd also hope we can replace Euan O'Reilly in January and get another attacker in. Ultimately, it's the first January in a long time we've even been in with a shout and I think a couple of signings would let us see the ambition of Murray and the board. 

I would agree with that. I actually think McKay is quite underappreciated by our support. Can do the dirty work, isn't going to hit a World Cup pass but can usually find a team mate with a pass, is a goal threat and can make forward runs and get in the box to support the attack (how many games is that now he's hit the bar/had at least a chance at goal) and can cover multiple positions. His throw-ins are a threat too though I do think we should employ a bit of variety when it comes to throw-ins as it's frustrating when they're clearly being swept up by the opposition but yet we keep going to that particular well. 

Agreed that it is very obvious what our strongest XI is and we're infinitely weaker when we have key players missing. We've seen that when Hutton, Roberts and Gallagher have all been missing. I said a few weeks ago that while we have a massive 'squad', we don't have a lot of depth in terms of quality and that, apart from Eckersley and maybe Scott Gallacher, there's nobody on the bench you'd be confident could come in and do anywhere near as good a job as the player they're replacing. I know that's typically not the case with teams, especially at our level, but if you're wanting to win the league or get promoted you should be looking for as much parity as possible in terms of quality from the starting XI to the bench. Arbroath had it last season and most of the teams who have won this league have too. But I don't just think there's a small difference I think there is a real dip in quality TBH. 

Eckersley is a classy player and could step into the team no bother and Gallacher is an experienced enough keeper to do a decent job. Hawkshaw has shown his quality previously but has struggled this season (albeit he hasn't played much). And I don't think he's quite got the grit or energy levels to play the same role as Roberts but he does have some quality on the ball. Kerr is a good prospect but is very raw. Would he be as solid as either Crighton or Fordyce (who even still concede far too many soft goals)? Probably not (though in time I think he'll be a good player). Wedderburn is far too slow to be effective and in fact is so immobile you're effectively playing with a man down. Not only that but he's really not conducive to our style of play at all. James Cowan I wouldn't recognise if I walked past him in the street. Charlie Reilly, while only a young lad, was pretty useless TBH. We got demonstrably better when he dropped out the team. Hope he recovers well from his injury but I hope he makes his way back to Accies in January. Roy? As others have said he's had chances to impress but he just isn't cutting it at all. Ineffective and I'm really not sure what he's meant to bring to the team. He can't hold up the ball, can't play a killer pass, doesn't make particularly good runs off the ball or get himself into scoring positions. Doesn't take a good set piece. He's not even quick and can't beat a man either (like Thomson who, despite having a pretty rubbish end product is at least a threat at this level due to being quick and being able to get by his man). He's scored 5 times but I'd never be confident of him scoring whenever he's on the park. I want the lad to do well and I hate to be harsh on him but he's just not been very good at all. And it doesn't seem like there's anyone in the reserves who are ready to play and make an impact in the first team, at least at the moment anyway. 

Overall I do genuinely think we have a good starting XI for this level. But if we want to stay in the top 4/challenge for promotion we do need much better quality coming off the bench as as we've seen the last couple of weeks, there are going to be times when the substitutes/reserve players are called upon and we need to do a lot better than what we produced on Saturday. 

Hopefully another striker and a midfielder to come in (at least). 

Hope all diamonds have a great Christmas and festive period. 3 points over Falkirk would round up the Christmas festivities nicely. 

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On 21/12/2019 at 10:03, Passionate said:

Understand the sentiments i rate Smith and McCann highly also,  small problem is that belong to Accies and Dunfermline....   The player i would try and sign next is Callum Fordyce steady player.

I can see us cutting a deal to let Smith go tbf, he's not going to get game time at us and by all accounts he's getting a good run of games at Airdrie. 

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6 hours ago, airdrieman said:

Roy? As others have said he's had chances to impress but he just isn't cutting it at all. Ineffective and I'm really not sure what he's meant to bring to the team. He can't hold up the ball, can't play a killer pass, doesn't make particularly good runs off the ball or get himself into scoring positions. Doesn't take a good set piece. He's not even quick and can't beat a man either (like Thomson who, despite having a pretty rubbish end product is at least a threat at this level due to being quick and being able to get by his man). He's scored 5 times but I'd never be confident of him scoring whenever he's on the park. I want the lad to do well and I hate to be harsh on him but he's just not been very good at all. 

I can understand much of that about Roy but I'm surprised to read the bit about his pace - that was one attribute he had in spades when he played for us. I thought he'd have been fine at this level even though he was pretty poor at tracking back, when we played him wide he did offer a bit of threat with his pace. Checking his wiki it seems he only scored twice for us but I could've sworn he scored more.

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While I said myself it's a position we could improve on I do agree that McKay is very raw and there is a good player in there. Wasn't until recently I noticed how tall he is actually and it's a shame he's not there to get on the end of his own long throws because he's probably one of our best players to have in the box challenging for high balls. And his involvement in the first goal against Falkirk from start to finish was excellent, yes.

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McKay is very raw - especially for a 23 year old - but he's very little first team football and I'm not convinced even he knows what his best position is. I don't think many defensive midfielders in our division would have been able to do what he did to score our opener against Falkirk - won the ball near the halfway line, gave it to Roberts then got himself into the box to head it in. Compare that to recent seasons - Grant Gallagher, Kyle Hutton, etc wouldn't be helping us win that game. The goals from long throws have also been vital in the good run we've had.
I'd suggest the main issue with our midfield is that it's a very fragile balance - McKay sitting needs Millar to cover him, Millar in a more free role needs both McKay to be disciplined and Roberts to provide the spark, and Roberts needs someone to do the dirty work. Any one of the 3 missing and I think we'd look weaker - as we've seen.
We also, with Smith and Carrick being in for their work rate, lack a wee bit of creativity. Unfortunately Hawkshaw and Reilly haven't been able to show much and Thomson has been injured - I'd also hope we can replace Euan O'Reilly in January and get another attacker in. Ultimately, it's the first January in a long time we've even been in with a shout and I think a couple of signings would let us see the ambition of Murray and the board. 

He played the whole of last season in Center mid?Surely after a year he would know how to play the position?
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34 minutes ago, Spanish Armada said:


He played the whole of last season in Center mid?Surely after a year he would know how to play the position?

He only seems to have played 7 times on loan at Morecambe last season and his appearances for us are the most in four years. What position it was seems unclear-centre back? Stiil learning at 23?  One of my pals is highly critical but the rest of us think he has done some good work in a defensive stance. I think he may need a wee turn on the bench.

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He only seems to have played 7 times on loan at Morecambe last season and his appearances for us are the most in four years. What position it was seems unclear-centre back? Stiil learning at 23?  One of my pals is highly critical but the rest of us think he has done some good work in a defensive stance. I think he may need a wee turn on the bench.

Needs to learn from big Nat
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