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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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37 minutes ago, dextermorgan said:

We were about eight minutes from victory over a fairly strong Queens side and then a 'rookie' mistake changed the whole game. QP rarely threatened the other evening despite having so much play and a win for us would not have been unjust.

For me, our trouble this and previous seasons is not having the firepower to change games. We could and should have been two or three up on Friday night before the penalty. I've said many times however, compare our stikers with those teams who will be challenging at the top and it'll give you a fair idea where we will be in May. As for fitness, I feel that the lack of a physical forward player contributes to us giving the ball back to the opposition far too frequently in the latter half of a game. We seen this the other evening when Scotland chose not to play Dykes up front against Denmark.

As for our present forward line, Gabby McGill has been terrific since arriving but Calum Gallagher must be feeling the pressure now as he has had numerous chances to score in the past few games and not produced. My main hope for this season is that Aissa gets a good run in the side as I believe he could deliver the goals, it's not like we are not creating chances in every game.

In terms of strikers, I’d say only Cove (Megginson), Clyde (Goodwillie) and maybe Queen’s Park (Murray) have a particularly great striker at this level. Falkirk have some good attacking midfield options but other than Keena their strikers are pretty rubbish. Montrose haven’t really had a great striker since they’ve been promoted, while Alloa have Connor Sammon. We don’t have a striker on the same level as a Megginson or a Goodwillie but I think we possibly have the best strength in depth up front in the league. Most teams would be happy to take Kouider-Aissa, Gallagher, Smith and McGill with the form he’s in just now. Hopefully once they’re all fit and Gallagher gets his first goal we’ll be alright.

You’re right about a lack of holding the ball up towards the end of the game being an issue, particularly on Friday and against Dumbarton, but I think that was mostly due to McGill being visibly knackered for the last 10/15 minutes. I’m hopeful that Kouider-Aissa will help with that when he’s fit, as while Gallagher is alright at holding the ball up at times he’s more of a penalty box striker and it’s clearly not Smith or Allan’s strong point either.

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On 05/09/2021 at 19:55, Mr November said:

In terms of strikers, I’d say only Cove (Megginson), Clyde (Goodwillie) and maybe Queen’s Park (Murray) have a particularly great striker at this level. Falkirk have some good attacking midfield options but other than Keena their strikers are pretty rubbish. Montrose haven’t really had a great striker since they’ve been promoted, while Alloa have Connor Sammon. We don’t have a striker on the same level as a Megginson or a Goodwillie but I think we possibly have the best strength in depth up front in the league. Most teams would be happy to take Kouider-Aissa, Gallagher, Smith and McGill with the form he’s in just now. Hopefully once they’re all fit and Gallagher gets his first goal we’ll be alright.

You’re right about a lack of holding the ball up towards the end of the game being an issue, particularly on Friday and against Dumbarton, but I think that was mostly due to McGill being visibly knackered for the last 10/15 minutes. I’m hopeful that Kouider-Aissa will help with that when he’s fit, as while Gallagher is alright at holding the ball up at times he’s more of a penalty box striker and it’s clearly not Smith or Allan’s strong point either.

We are not exactly cup specialists under Mr Murray get pumped usually regardless of the cup competition though there were some valid excuses for Friday. Imo the problem is we haven't taken the chances to kill games off and again imo I am not overly impressed with any team we have played so far though we do have some fullback issues we will be ok this season if we don't have to many injuries. 

The only way is up ♦️

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I see Thomas Robert has ended up in the Belgian second tier. It’s still a step up from Airdrie but a real step down from the links and trials he’s had over the last year. It was fun for a few months last year when he was signed and then found some form in October/November but I can’t say we miss him too much or that I’d be desperate to see him back.

 

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3 hours ago, Mr November said:

I see Thomas Robert has ended up in the Belgian second tier. It’s still a step up from Airdrie but a real step down from the links and trials he’s had over the last year. It was fun for a few months last year when he was signed and then found some form in October/November but I can’t say we miss him too much or that I’d be desperate to see him back.

 

Overall he has to be considered a poor signing.    Arrived on his dad's reputation and from day 1 we were told we would only a stepping stone to a bigger club.   Clearly not as good as his agent thinks he is.  I remember 3 games last season that could be said he played well.   All the rest he's sat on the bench or was poor.     Couldn't get a game in league 1 but was still whored around Europe every week.    Good luck to him Overall glad he's off the wage bill. 

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6 hours ago, Ballboy said:

Overall he has to be considered a poor signing.    Arrived on his dad's reputation and from day 1 we were told we would only a stepping stone to a bigger club.   Clearly not as good as his agent thinks he is.  I remember 3 games last season that could be said he played well.   All the rest he's sat on the bench or was poor.     Couldn't get a game in league 1 but was still whored around Europe every week.    Good luck to him Overall glad he's off the wage bill. 

I am led to believe he was never on the wage bill in the first place,   The way he was whored to the media was over the pail stuff from a now ex employee,  I sincerely hope he goes on to have a good career and wish him well....

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13 hours ago, Mr November said:

I see Thomas Robert has ended up in the Belgian second tier. It’s still a step up from Airdrie but a real step down from the links and trials he’s had over the last year. It was fun for a few months last year when he was signed and then found some form in October/November but I can’t say we miss him too much or that I’d be desperate to see him back.

 

Came on here to ask about this. Hes an interesting one to say the least. c**t was linked with Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, Motherwell and Newcastle off the top of my head and also had trials at Burnley. Despite this struggled for gametime with Airdrie, but has still made a big step-up to one of the top teams in the Belgian 2nd tier? Really weird move. How do Airdrie fans think he will do? And what the f**k happened with him at Airdrie?

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13 minutes ago, candycelt said:

Came on here to ask about this. Hes an interesting one to say the least. c**t was linked with Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, Motherwell and Newcastle off the top of my head and also had trials at Burnley. Despite this struggled for gametime with Airdrie, but has still made a big step-up to one of the top teams in the Belgian 2nd tier? Really weird move. How do Airdrie fans think he will do? And what the f**k happened with him at Airdrie?

Media creation and a few good goals aside, he never had the desired drive for L1 football. Also a feeling that he was not pulling his weight by many of the other players? He is presumably a native  French speaker so maybe Belgium rather than North Lanarkshire patois,  would see him flourish?  ( I doubt it)

Edited by Chapelhall chap
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48 minutes ago, airdrie_3 said:

Anyone see what happened today with the guy being thrown out?

He was sitting behind me with his wee boy.  He got up and said "he'd had enough" and then with the wee fella in tow, stormed away. Next thing,  he was having a spat with someone in the directors area - assuming one of ours. He then stormed away but it looked like he was going to be huckled by security on his way out.

Feel sorry for the wee boy - he looked really upset.

 

Edited by Roger Thornhill
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I thought that was a really good point today given the circumstances of the last few weeks. It wasn't a spectacular performance, other than Frizzell's shot in the first half I never felt like we were going to score, but for the third time this season I never really felt like Queen's Park were going to score in open play either. Currie made some good saves and had his usual good game at Firhill but defensively we were very solid, much better than the games against Montrose and Falkirk anyway. I thought McCabe was our best player once again. We missed him in midfield (Agnew was ok while Scott McGill and Frizzell did well but we lacked McCabe's composure in there) but I thought he strolled it at the back, won his duels and kept things organised. Quitongo had another good game and Watson did quite well at right back. When Josh Kerr is fit again I'd keep Watson at right back and move McCabe back into midfield but until then I'm happy to go with the back four that started today. 

We struggled up front today, Callum Smith's energy and pace was a big miss. Gallagher has had a poor season and even accounting for COVID he really struggled today, he looked off the pace and I thought he should have been taken off earlier. Jordan Allan worked hard when he came on and did well with the limited service he had. Gabby McGill worked hard and created some decent opportunities but he's not a winger, I'd rather see him through the middle with Jordan Allan out wide when they're both on the pitch if we're only going with one up front. 

I thought Ian Murray was strangely quiet today. Usually he's too vocal if anything which leads to the numerous bookings but he seemed to spend most of the game sitting in the dugout with Prunty giving instructions. 

A couple of big games coming up next week. Given our start to the season we really need a couple of wins before a tough trip up to Cove. Our Tuesday night home form was fantastic at the end of last season so hopefully that carries on this season. Alloa will be another tough game but we need to be winning these sort of games at home if we want to aim for at least top four. Hopefully a few of the injured players are back for Tuesday, we didn't really have any game changing options on the bench today so we could do with something different there. 

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1 hour ago, Roger Thornhill said:

He was sitting behind me with his wee boy.  He got up and said "he'd had enough" and then with the wee fella in tow, stormed away. Next thing,  he was having a spat with someone in the directors area - assuming one of ours. He then stormed away but it looked like he was going to be huckled by security on his way out.

Feel sorry for the wee boy - he looked really upset.

 

I caught a sight of him heading apparently out with his wee boy and for some reason he seemed to want a go at some of the director box clients but it was hard to hear what had got to him. He did seem to think they were all f......... Wahoos  ( Gullivers travel I think) but the stewards dealt with it fairly promptly. I also felt sorry for the wee boy and it does show how frustrated some folk can get. As to the game I thought we were just trying to make sure they could not play through us with two holding midfielders ( McGill and Agnew) who rarely appeared in the final third. It looked as if we hoped Gabby and Easton would get some space to attack but only McGill broke through for a fine chance to be missed by Frizzel?  It was stuffy and QP ran out of ideas once the fancy passing proved ineffective.  I think we are not far behind most teams but a real worry exists over the lack of goals /supporting runs to help Gallagher. I assume Smith was injured but a front 2 would have done so much more today. and in future. Mccabe had a very good game but he really needs to be in a more creative role. Easton was very peripheral in that team today and there was more dig from Jordan Allan as a sub than Gal in the game. Overall dropping to 2nd bottom is a worry but a draw against the big money leaders , may well be quite important. Now for wee Barry's turn to get welcomed.

Edited by Chapelhall chap
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I wasn’t at the game so can’t add anything in terms of the performance but a point away to QP is probably a ‘decent enough’ result. They’re eminently beatable though so it’s a pity not to have done so. 
 

A huge week coming up for the club. Two home games you’d be looking to win under any circumstances but especially important we do so now since we’re playing catch-up. Anything less than 6 points is unacceptable. 
 

If Kerr and Lyons are going to be out for any length of time I’d still like to see another centre-half brought in. McCabe has obviously done an excellent job there but we need him further up the park. We need Salim back ASAP or put McGill through the middle and play Frizzell or a loanee winger out wide as Gal isn’t cutting it at the moment. It doesn’t help that we have no proper wide players and so there’s almost zero service coming from out there. 

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34 minutes ago, Mr November said:

I thought that was a really good point today given the circumstances of the last few weeks. It wasn't a spectacular performance, other than Frizzell's shot in the first half I never felt like we were going to score, but for the third time this season I never really felt like Queen's Park were going to score in open play either. Currie made some good saves and had his usual good game at Firhill but defensively we were very solid, much better than the games against Montrose and Falkirk anyway. I thought McCabe was our best player once again. We missed him in midfield (Agnew was ok while Scott McGill and Frizzell did well but we lacked McCabe's composure in there) but I thought he strolled it at the back, won his duels and kept things organised. Quitongo had another good game and Watson did quite well at right back. When Josh Kerr is fit again I'd keep Watson at right back and move McCabe back into midfield but until then I'm happy to go with the back four that started today. 

We struggled up front today, Callum Smith's energy and pace was a big miss. Gallagher has had a poor season and even accounting for COVID he really struggled today, he looked off the pace and I thought he should have been taken off earlier. Jordan Allan worked hard when he came on and did well with the limited service he had. Gabby McGill worked hard and created some decent opportunities but he's not a winger, I'd rather see him through the middle with Jordan Allan out wide when they're both on the pitch if we're only going with one up front. 

 The ideal partnership should be Salim and Smith,  completely untried due to injuries so far,   Gallagher seemed well off the pace, covid or not be has struggled most of the season..

I thought Ian Murray was strangely quiet today. Usually he's too vocal if anything which leads to the numerous bookings but he seemed to spend most of the game sitting in the dugout with Prunty giving instructions.   

Maybe Murray was just enjoying the fresh AYR.....

A couple of big games coming up next week. Given our start to the season we really need a couple of wins before a tough trip up to Cove. Our Tuesday night home form was fantastic at the end of last season so hopefully that carries on this season. Alloa will be another tough game but we need to be winning these sort of games at home if we want to aim for at least top four. Hopefully a few of the injured players are back for Tuesday, we didn't really have any game changing options on the bench today so we could do with something different there. 

 The league table is irrelevant at the moment, still a few freak results going around,  But yes we must start winning games,  on a positive though, our standard of performance is pretty decent and consistent..

 

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39 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

I caught a sight of him heading apparently out with his wee boy and for some reason he seemed to want a go at some of the director box clients but it was hard to hear what had got to him. He did seem to think they were all f......... Wahoos  ( Gullivers travel I think) but the stewards dealt with it fairly promptly. I also felt sorry for the wee boy and it does show how frustrated some folk can get. As to the game I thought we were just trying to make sure they could not play through us with two holding midfielders ( McGill and Agnew) who rarely appeared in the final third. It looked as if we hoped Gabby and Easton would get some space to attack but only McGill broke through for a fine chance to be missed by Frizzel?  It was stuffy and QP ran out of ideas once the fancy passing proved ineffective.  I think we are not far behind most teams but a real worry exists over the lack of goals /supporting runs to help Gallagher. I assume Smith was injured but a front 2 would have done so much more today. and in future. Mccabe had a very good game but he really needs to be in a more creative role. Easton was very peripheral in that team today and there was more dig from Jordan Allan as a sub than Gal in the game. Overall dropping to 2nd bottom is a worry but a draw against the big money leaders , may well be quite important. Now for wee Barry's turn to get welcomed.

The guy who had a rant was having a go at a Queen's Park director/sponsor - he was challenging him to a square go. The Airdrie directors were sitting further over. I think something had been said to him on his way out and he made his way to the man who said something to him. 

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2 hours ago, Diamonds Are Red said:

The guy who had a rant was having a go at a Queen's Park director/sponsor - he was challenging him to a square go. The Airdrie directors were sitting further over. I think something had been said to him on his way out and he made his way to the man who said something to him. 

Thanks for further info. He did seem to react to something.

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On the subject of Thomas Robert. Good riddance. To him. His agent. Anyone involved in this absolute abortion of a thing. People wishing him well. Why? He contributed less and caused more stress than dozens of players over the last decade who got one tenth of the comments and interest. He was garbage. Utter garbage. Pointless, useless, insipid, overhyped nonsense. Scottish football "networking" in its most crass and obviously crap form.

 

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6 hours ago, cb_diamond said:

On the subject of Thomas Robert. Good riddance. To him. His agent. Anyone involved in this absolute abortion of a thing. People wishing him well. Why? He contributed less and caused more stress than dozens of players over the last decade who got one tenth of the comments and interest. He was garbage. Utter garbage. Pointless, useless, insipid, overhyped nonsense. Scottish football "networking" in its most crass and obviously crap form.

 

I thought he looked a fairly handy player for this level who was vastly overhyped and talked up in the media to try and bag him a big money move somewhere. He didn’t live up to the hype but was he really “utter garbage?”. You’re making out like he was some sort of complete ringer who had never kicked a ball in his life. 

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43 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I thought he looked a fairly handy player for this level who was vastly overhyped and talked up in the media to try and bag him a big money move somewhere. He didn’t live up to the hype but was he really “utter garbage?”. You’re making out like he was some sort of complete ringer who had never kicked a ball in his life. 

With the benefit of hindsight, he was IMO, garbage. Had maybe 3 or 4 games in an entire season where he made a real, useful contribution. If I said to any supporter of any team (and remove the name, the hype etc) "you've been offered an attacker player who won't play that much, whose contribution will be spotty pretty much every time he plays, who has very little heart for the league and level and who will bring no more than a very small handful of goals and/or assists. Want to sign him?" How many would say yes? Not many I'd wager. That is the reality of Roberts contribution. Add an absolute circus that came with and a load of theories/conjecture/downright lies about his contract and whether he would bring the club money (which would have been his only redeeming feature and as it turned out wasn't the case). That's what I'm basing this on.

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13 hours ago, Mr November said:

I thought that was a really good point today given the circumstances of the last few weeks. It wasn't a spectacular performance, other than Frizzell's shot in the first half I never felt like we were going to score, but for the third time this season I never really felt like Queen's Park were going to score in open play either. Currie made some good saves and had his usual good game at Firhill but defensively we were very solid, much better than the games against Montrose and Falkirk anyway. I thought McCabe was our best player once again. We missed him in midfield (Agnew was ok while Scott McGill and Frizzell did well but we lacked McCabe's composure in there) but I thought he strolled it at the back, won his duels and kept things organised. Quitongo had another good game and Watson did quite well at right back. When Josh Kerr is fit again I'd keep Watson at right back and move McCabe back into midfield but until then I'm happy to go with the back four that started today. 

We struggled up front today, Callum Smith's energy and pace was a big miss. Gallagher has had a poor season and even accounting for COVID he really struggled today, he looked off the pace and I thought he should have been taken off earlier. Jordan Allan worked hard when he came on and did well with the limited service he had. Gabby McGill worked hard and created some decent opportunities but he's not a winger, I'd rather see him through the middle with Jordan Allan out wide when they're both on the pitch if we're only going with one up front. 

I thought Ian Murray was strangely quiet today. Usually he's too vocal if anything which leads to the numerous bookings but he seemed to spend most of the game sitting in the dugout with Prunty giving instructions. 

Maybe Murray was just enjoying the fresh AYR.....

A couple of big games coming up next week. Given our start to the season we really need a couple of wins before a tough trip up to Cove. Our Tuesday night home form was fantastic at the end of last season so hopefully that carries on this season. Alloa will be another tough game but we need to be winning these sort of games at home if we want to aim for at least top four. Hopefully a few of the injured players are back for Tuesday, we didn't really have any game changing options on the bench today so we could do with something different there. 

"Maybe Murray was just enjoying the fresh AYR....."  Are you suggesting Murray is moving on?

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