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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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He was never a player I particularly noticed when playing for other teams, but Rhys McCabe has been excellent for us so far. Controls games, always communicating, great eye for a pass and a cracking free-kick. He can also play centre-half apparently! Been impressed so far and he’ll obviously be a key player for us. 
 

Gabby McGill has also proven to be a bit of a find. When we signed him I had zero expectations for him based on his record and prior reputation but he’s certainly been effective for us thus far. I don’t think he’s necessarily a brilliant technical footballer, and he’s not a wide player either, but the long diagonals have worked well and you can’t argue at all with 4 goals in 5 games. Would never have thought in a forward line containing Gallagher, Salim and even Smith he would be the most prolific even at this stage but fair play to him! 
 

Credit to Matty McDonald and Scott McGill for their performances yesterday too. I like them both but they’re both pretty raw in their own positions as is so to play an entire game out of position under a reasonable amount of pressure is good going. 
 

I do wonder if we might see a defender come in on loan this week? If Kerr and Lyons are going to be out for any length of time then, even discounting Covid, we’re relatively short in there. Fair enough McCabe worked well in there yesterday but it’s not a long-term solution. As said hope all the guys with Covid make a full and speedy recovery and we get at least a couple of bodies back next week. 

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16 hours ago, Rio 2 said:

A bit concerned that Peterheid might pull off the Houdini act from a few years ago (3-1 down, 10 mins to go and win 4-3)

I think that was a home game and after Nicky Cadden had scored a penalty? A midweek game? Will need to check archive etc. Like you I was a wee bit sweating!

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1 hour ago, Chapelhall chap said:

It was Boxing Day 2015 . Parry had been sent off and P'Heid went down to 10 from Cadden's penalty but scored 3 in last 10 minutes. The wonderful days of Eddie Wolecki Black. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

I think that was Wolecki Black’s first game in charge. I wasn’t convinced by his appointment but I remember thinking at 3-1 that we actually looked pretty good and maybe this might actually work out alright. Unfortunately it ended up being more like the last 10 minutes. 

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On 22/08/2021 at 17:03, Mr November said:

I think that was Wolecki Black’s first game in charge. I wasn’t convinced by his appointment but I remember thinking at 3-1 that we actually looked pretty good and maybe this might actually work out alright. Unfortunately it ended up being more like the last 10 minutes. 

I know it ended badly for him but like you I was not convinced of where he would take us. Mind you we could say that of many of our recent managers.

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1 minute ago, Chapelhall chap said:

I know it ended badly for him but like you I was not convinced of where he would take us. Mind you we could say that of many of our recent managers.

Probably the most structured and professional set up since the reformation is the current one , 

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3 hours ago, Chapelhall chap said:

I know it ended badly for him but like you I was not convinced of where he would take us. Mind you we could say that of many of our recent managers.

Nice guy, and somebody who I think could have added a lot to a club at academy or women's level but never a manager at first team level. Talked a (in relative terms) huge game for somebody with zero track record in men's football and was getting found out. Obviously we'll never know how it would all have panned out but I don't think it would have been any better than what we got under McBride and Wilson. The Stenny game which followed that Peterhead game was eye-bleedingly bad. Interestingly, he's back involved in men's football in Airdrie with Gartcairn. Hope it works out for him. 

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I noticed on the match thread that we're apparently up to 8 positive tests now? Without being funny will we even have a team for Saturday? Dean Ritchie might have to play which is clearly a red-line issue for Ian Murray. Who'd be better outfield Currie or Cantley? 

Tam Rab is still without a club... As are Sabatini and Mbayo. Time to put the band back together IMO. 

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6 hours ago, airdrieman said:

Nice guy, and somebody who I think could have added a lot to a club at academy or women's level but never a manager at first team level. Talked a (in relative terms) huge game for somebody with zero track record in men's football and was getting found out. Obviously we'll never know how it would all have panned out but I don't think it would have been any better than what we got under McBride and Wilson. The Stenny game which followed that Peterhead game was eye-bleedingly bad. Interestingly, he's back involved in men's football in Airdrie with Gartcairn. Hope it works out for him. 

What a horrendous time to be an Airdrie fan under Wotherspoons tenure, a complete soap opera,,,   Bollan getting stabbed in the back by that wrong un Iain King and his sidekick EWB, not to mention Alan Upton (who), the large number of youth coaches getting sent to Barcelona for coaching, who have never been seen again.. Then we had the "Right here, Right Now ' situation with Wotherspoon and his secretary.....   Not to mention the constant signing of unknown poor players,  Sumsky and Esposito come to mind, there are many others...

 

The following season when all of the above were 'found out' we brought in Dalziel on a consultancy role,   who can ever forget the the day of the long knives when Wotherspoon seemed to sack everybody that answered their phone and we got left with Mark Wilson who somehow got us to the playoffs....

 

the following close season  , was horrendous and if it wasn't for the TRUST we wouldn't be here today,   

 

EWB seems to get a gig (somehow) even to this day,   I thought he was completely useless and I lost any small respect I had for him when I found it be had shagged his right back.... 

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4 hours ago, Passionate said:

What a horrendous time to be an Airdrie fan under Wotherspoons tenure, a complete soap opera,,,   Bollan getting stabbed in the back by that wrong un Iain King and his sidekick EWB, not to mention Alan Upton (who), the large number of youth coaches getting sent to Barcelona for coaching, who have never been seen again.. Then we had the "Right here, Right Now ' situation with Wotherspoon and his secretary.....   Not to mention the constant signing of unknown poor players,  Sumsky and Esposito come to mind, there are many others...

 

The following season when all of the above were 'found out' we brought in Dalziel on a consultancy role,   who can ever forget the the day of the long knives when Wotherspoon seemed to sack everybody that answered their phone and we got left with Mark Wilson who somehow got us to the playoffs....

 

the following close season  , was horrendous and if it wasn't for the TRUST we wouldn't be here today,   

 

EWB seems to get a gig (somehow) even to this day,   I thought he was completely useless and I lost any small respect I had for him when I found it be had shagged his right back.... 

There’s definitely a long form article or podcast to be done about the Wotherspoon era. 
 

I’m sure he sincerely wanted to do well (at least initially) but the whole thing was a complete farce and marred in incompetence from the start. Hiring exclusively his pals to positions of power. Fine if they have a notable track record of success. Not if they’re Iain King, EWB, Gordon Dalziel and Mark Wilson. A three year plan to get to the Premier League using kids and Hugo Faria (on a two and a half year deal) and playing football like Barcelona. Miles off the mark in terms of what is required to succeed at this level. Eventually sacking Iain King because he realised he doesn’t need a chief executive (competent or otherwise) in the third tier of Scottish football. Appointing Gordon Dalziel as Director of Football even though he couldn’t go to games on a Saturday 😂 I mean what club in their right mind would do that? Getting rid of players like Parry, Crighton/Lithgow, Watt and Cadden and replacing them with duffers. Signing Joe Gorman on a pre-contract and a two-year deal. 
 

Other select highlights include Wotherspoon and King getting the supporters’ bus, Wotherspoon’s kid being the mascot for a team playing against Airdrie and Wotherspoon being so thin-skinned he used to read P&B and the Stomp and write programme articles raging about he was getting slagged off 😂 fun times! 

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I’d hope we’d be pushing for the game to be called off if the amount of positive cases are as bad as said to be. Not sure on the rules but we managed to scrape by on Saturday but if there’s more now it would be ridiculous. Plenty of time throughout the season to reschedule.  

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I've had a quick check and the rules are a little vague.   It depends really on if some has tested positive themselves or just been in close contact with some who has.   Its the close contact thing that is most open to interpretation.  10 days before a player can return to training but as previous fitness levels will differ if the player has been fit enough to train on their own.    For a game to be postponed it will need agreement from both clubs and spfl should be notified 48 hours before scheduled kick off.   Their is a rule for major events happening to a team like 10 broken legs in a squad and the sfa have to help with postponing games but no rules for covid.   So it seems if both teams don't agree then the game must go ahead.  

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The challenge is not only having 11 players to play, but how fit are those players coming back from being out due to COVID? Are they suffering any effects like fatigue etc which can last for weeks? Have they even trained? They certainly won't have been involved in any tactical prep for the next game. This could impact the club for weeks. However I reckon it'll happen across most clubs this season so in a way, is it a good thing to get it out the way so early? 

As for calling off games, I reckon that'd only happen if we physically cannot field 11 players. 

Yes we could loan players but what club wants to send players to a club who have multiple positive Covid cases? It's a tricky one indeed. 

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2 hours ago, Glenmavis Diamond said:

The challenge is not only having 11 players to play, but how fit are those players coming back from being out due to COVID? Are they suffering any effects like fatigue etc which can last for weeks? Have they even trained? They certainly won't have been involved in any tactical prep for the next game. This could impact the club for weeks. However I reckon it'll happen across most clubs this season so in a way, is it a good thing to get it out the way so early? 

As for calling off games, I reckon that'd only happen if we physically cannot field 11 players. 

Yes we could loan players but what club wants to send players to a club who have multiple positive Covid cases? It's a tricky one indeed. 

Sam Wardrop tweeted earlier in the week about how he was feeling rough and only about 50% (though improving). And that’s a guy who’s a pro footballer and fitness trainer. Bit of a concern for all the reasons you mention. Late signing spree at training tonight? 

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