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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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1 hour ago, Stevo1968 said:

IMO we created similar amount of chances to score 5 last week but this week we took them, Crighton looked shakey again to begin with but grew into the game!

 

We barely created anything last week, maybe a couple of headers and the odd goalmouth scramble. And that was with us pushing and chucking everything to get back into the game for the 90 minutes. Today we spent the last 40 minutes trying to control the game, if we'd really needed to push and get more today we'd have created far more in the second half. You cannot compare them.

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8 hours ago, Mr November said:

David Nixon is a real throwback. I can’t remember what their record was but wild that a back five of Stephen Robertson, Marc Smyth, Bobby Donnelly, David Nixon and Matthew Hazley kept a load of clean sheets for a while.

And won the challenge cup 😂.

I actually really liked Bobby Donnelly, I thought he was a proper no nonsense centre half, can mind one game the ball was about 2 feet off the deck, an attacker running in the box to hit the ball and the big man there himself upfront of the ball head first and took a hell of a thump to the head. Quality stuff.

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11 hours ago, Mr November said:

David Nixon is a real throwback. I can’t remember what their record was but wild that a back five of Stephen Robertson, Marc Smyth, Bobby Donnelly, David Nixon and Matthew Hazley kept a load of clean sheets for a while.

Remember that Kenny Black team well,  goals against record was great,   goals for was terrible 29 I think for the season..... On  Mat Hazleys trial game he was unbelievable ,once he signed he fell away and luvvers  got his no 3 short back...    Another ill fated playoff adventure followed...

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2 hours ago, Spanish Armada said:

Who ever it was that said that “they don’t get all the fuss about Sabatini” yesterday proved how good a player Sabatini is and has been

Quite confident it was me that said that and I don’t think I’m being picky if I repeat that statement, not seeing he’s poor, think he’s alright but not so sure if his name was something like ‘dean Ritchie’ people would be so buzzing about him... 

 

He’s his best when he moves the ball quick and not go on pointless dribbles, there’s a difference with being composed and taking forever on the ball!

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The absolute chasing we dished out has obviously stolen all the spotlight, and no wonder, but how about that challenge from Crighton on Goodwillie inside the first minute? 

Sublime. You love to see it. 

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19 minutes ago, AndyDD said:

The absolute chasing we dished out has obviously stolen all the spotlight, and no wonder, but how about that challenge from Crighton on Goodwillie inside the first minute? 

Sublime. You love to see it. 

Were a few class acts to enjoy it was about time he got it great tackle.♦️

5 goals, clean sheet flags back some nice football... Nice to see the Manager happy and relaxed even enjoyed the comment " we decided to shore things up a bit at 4-0. Good day all round. ♦️

Edited by Eric the half a b
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27 minutes ago, AndyDD said:

The absolute chasing we dished out has obviously stolen all the spotlight, and no wonder, but how about that challenge from Crighton on Goodwillie inside the first minute? 

Sublime. You love to see it. 

I notice it was not on the highlights today but I did wince as the glare cleared to see him nail the Clyde chap. It was noticeable that it did not actually stop him as he was haring away seconds later. It must be one of the quickest yellow cards and almost on a par with that Red Card Uruguayan halving Strachan in two. When Crighton was CB with Lithgow I think they had no yellow cards one season, but I could be wrong.  He did well to curb any other daft challenges and as our commentary team said, it was inspired by calm Fordyce. A good Sunday watch today on DTV.

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17 minutes ago, Eric the half a b said:

Were a few class acts to enjoy it was about time he got it great tackle.♦️

5 goals, clean sheet flags back some nice football... Nice to see the Manager happy and relaxed even enjoyed the comment " we decided to shore things up a bit at 4-0. Good day all round. ♦️

It was indeed and it was interesting that he moved Kyle into the middle as well , since he has a habit of changing several positions at a substitution, especially making Paul McKay shift yet again. 

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21 hours ago, Tulloch Gorum said:

The last time we won a league game by five goals was, unless I am mistaken, a 5-0 win over Morton on 30th August, 2008.  McLaughlin scored two, and Di Giacomo, Nixon and Lynch got one each.  We followed that up with a 2-1 win at Livinston, and then went on a magnificent run of one win in the following twelve matches.

 

20 hours ago, Mr November said:

David Nixon is a real throwback. I can’t remember what their record was but wild that a back five of Stephen Robertson, Marc Smyth, Bobby Donnelly, David Nixon and Matthew Hazley kept a load of clean sheets for a while.

 

11 hours ago, ++Ammo - Airdrie++ said:

And won the challenge cup 😂.

I actually really liked Bobby Donnelly, I thought he was a proper no nonsense centre half, can mind one game the ball was about 2 feet off the deck, an attacker running in the box to hit the ball and the big man there himself upfront of the ball head first and took a hell of a thump to the head. Quality stuff.

 

8 hours ago, Passionate said:

Remember that Kenny Black team well,  goals against record was great,   goals for was terrible 29 I think for the season..... On  Mat Hazleys trial game he was unbelievable ,once he signed he fell away and luvvers  got his no 3 short back...    Another ill fated playoff adventure followed...

David Nixon scored a great own goal in that Challenge Cup final. That was the team that beat Hearts at Tynecastle as well wasn't it? Some great memories in amongst the dross of that time period. 

Anyone remember Feyenoord's finest Michael Brown? 😂

Clyde 1 v 0 Airdrie United | Gallery | Media | Clyde Football Club

 

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1 hour ago, Chapelhall chap said:

It was indeed and it was interesting that he moved Kyle into the middle as well , since he has a habit of changing several positions at a substitution, especially making Paul McKay shift yet again. 

Was difficult to see parts with the glare. Happy with the win and combination of some good Airdrie play and Clyde being none too good Sean's tackle probably put a marker down ♦️

Edited by Eric the half a b
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31 minutes ago, airdrieman said:

 

 

 

David Nixon scored a great own goal in that Challenge Cup final. That was the team that beat Hearts at Tynecastle as well wasn't it? Some great memories in amongst the dross of that time period. 

Anyone remember Feyenoord's finest Michael Brown? 😂

Clyde 1 v 0 Airdrie United | Gallery | Media | Clyde Football Club

 

Yeah, the Hearts game was the midweek before the 5-0 Morton game. Looking at the Hearts team it’s actually quite strong; Christophe Berra, Lee Wallace, Marius Zaliukas, Michael Stewart and Saulius Mikoliunas among others. Despite those international players they couldn’t beat a team that featured David Nixon, Michael Brown, Darren Smith and Kevin McDonald. It all went downhill when Kenny Black was handed a three year contract after the Challenge Cup final.

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David Nixon scored a great own goal in that Challenge Cup final. That was the team that beat Hearts at Tynecastle as well wasn't it? Some great memories in amongst the dross of that time period. 
Anyone remember Feyenoord's finest Michael Brown? [emoji23]
photo.php?id=740&key=600d2a1f5746ee84ba724bba1381badc0fdbcf54b979491dd3a5cad81f16f81e
 


Great season and great memories that season even if it culminated in disappointment. Micky B as mentioned was indeed a personal favourite. That team would wipe the floor with the current one imo
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15 hours ago, Diamond10 said:

 


Great season and great memories that season even if it culminated in disappointment. Micky B as mentioned was indeed a personal favourite. That team would wipe the floor with the current one imo

 

I assume when you say favourite, you mean absolutely hopeless? Always remember him being known as "the creme egg man" because of that head 😂

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Had a look over it and while there are other factors to consider such as who was playing and who we were playing against, since the start of last season (and counting league games only) the numbers show that 4231 has been our most used and probably most successful formation.

 

In 15 games using 4231, we've scored 24, conceded 13, and picked up 27 points. That's an average of 1.8 points per game, 1.6 scored per game and 0.87 goals conceded per game.

 

We've only used a standard 442 in 4 league games, and in those games we've scored 4, conceded 7 and picked up 4 points. That's one point per game, one goal scored per game, and 1.57 conceded per game.

 

We've used 352 (or 532 depending on who you ask) in 7 league games. In those games we've scored 7 goals, conceded 11, and picked up 10 points. That's 1.43 points per game, 1 goal scored per game, and 1.57 goals conceded per game.

 

We also used a narrow 442 on five occasions at the end of last season. This involved Wedderburn sitting in front of the back 4 with three midfielders in front of him, so I like to call it a 4132. Using this we scored 5, conceded 1 and picked up 10 points. That's 2 points per game, 1 goal scored per game, and 0.2 conceded per game.

 

In terms of points per game, 4132 is the winner here, but in the five games we used it we beat Peterhead, Clyde and East Fife, drew with Dumbarton and lost to Montrose. Given we never used it against Falkirk or Raith Rovers you could argue that it's not a fair sample compared to the other ones. One thing this shape definitely has going for it is the defensive record. Fair enough it wasn't used against the division's two big boys, but only conceding one in 5 is seriously good going.

 

442 might seem solid, but we've conceded more goals per game using it than any other formation, and by a considerable amount (perhaps not surprising after seeing us lose 2-0 to Dumbarton while using it at the weekend). 352 has a fairly poor defensive record too, but this is a bit warped by that 4-1 hammering we took in Methil.

 

The clear winner for me is 4231. It's the only formation we average better than a goal a game with (a bit grim that we're that toothless with every other formation). Obviously the momentum and form we had going when we used this formation might have pushed the goals per game higher than it should be, but 1.8 is far better than the rest. While doing this, we were also conceding less than a goal a game. Maybe not as solid as 4132, but it's fairly solid and also gives us goals. 1.8 points per game over a considerable amount of games is decent and would have us in the playoffs most seasons.

 

So there it is, it's probably nonsense that doesn't matter but it turns out we score more when we have a decent link between midfield and attack, and concede less when we have a midfielder that sits just in front of defence on his own. We also don't concede that much when we just go for it and play attacking football.

 

Quick summary for people who hate stats or reading long posts: going for it and attacking good, sitting in and inviting pressure bad.

 

Adding the weekend's result to this gives 4231 a similar PPG to what Raith Rovers won the league with last season. Of course Cove Rangers are currently averaging 3 points per game so maybe a higher standard will be set this season. As for our 5 goals at the weekend, we've now scored more goals in one game than 5 out of 10 teams in our league have managed in the opening four games (Cove, Montrose, Falkirk, us and East Fife on 9, 9, 8, 8 and 5 respectively with everyone else scoring 4 or less). We're joint third best with Falkirk for goals conceded on 4, with Cove and Dumbarton on 1 and 2 respectively (big scorers Montrose have conceded 9). It's a real shame we couldn't spread our goals out better to pick up more points, but hopefully the thrashing of Clyde gives the players confidence and encourages the manager to play attacking football with a 4231. Cove's next four league games are all against teams currently placed in the top half (Falkirk, us, Montrose, and Dumbarton) and their wins so far (although admittedly impressive) have all came against teams that have had poor starts, so there's definitely hope that they might drop some points soon. I still think we're in for another season that will be very tight at the top.

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https://www.idlehandsduffy.com/post/diamond-watches-airdrieonians-5-0-clyde

A lot more fun to write than the last two! 

Roll on Wednesday. 

As @ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds has pointed out (in painstaking detail, no less), this set up seems to be when we play our most effective stuff. A clean sheet to add to the goals hopefully underlines you can be hard to beat and unpleasant to play against without being shorn of guile, craft and attacking energy. 

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I assume when you say favourite, you mean absolutely hopeless? Always remember him being known as "the creme egg man" because of that head [emoji23]


Aye mate hopeless [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] still my second favourite Australian to play for airdrie behind Simon storey
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