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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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On 09/08/2021 at 22:35, thediamonddude said:

Re-directing the conversation a tad in relation to Saturday - I was delighted with the response from the players and management after what was such a poor performance the previous week.

Aside from the opening 5/10 mins when Dumbarton hemmed us in a bit and forced one straightforward save out of Currie, we were utterly dominant. 

Two efforts cleared off the line in the first half, as well as a looping cross from McGill that nearly caught out the keeper and then Easton’s superb long range effort that came back down off the bar, meant we really could and should have been further ahead before the madness on the hour mark.

The incident has been done to death here, but in my view, it’s one of those knife-edge 50/50 decisions that can swing either way. The frustration was that even if you are giving that against Wardrop, it’s never a second yellow. For me, the handbags at dawn and play acting have panicked the referee into making that call, which I think was wrong. I think it’s also absolutely fair to say that Maclean was ridiculously over the top - he rolls about in the first instance, thinks about getting up but goes back down when he sees the ref still hasn’t done anything, a Dumbarton player then tells him to stay down a bit longer (at which point he rolls some more) and then when Currie picks him up he stands on his feet throws a hissy fit at him and then goes down again. It was pathetic and that was what annoyed me - not whether it was a foul or not.

In any case, whilst what happened next was frustrating, I’m not overly concerned by it. Should we have seen it out? Yes. Did the players, staff and fans lose the plot a wee bit? Yes. But it’s football - we’re all human beings and it happens. We need to remember this was a highly charged game with players and staff that had been at both clubs - so the perceived injustice and subsequent ruckus could always have had that effect.

If we did it on a regular basis and let things like that cost us, I could understand but it needs to be looked at in context. This is a new team that is still gelling together - it’s just important they learn from this.

Like I say though, I saw enough to suggest we deserved more than we got out of the game and on another day, might have done just that. Yes Dumbarton had us under the cosh for the last half hour, but aside from some goal mouth scrambles, didn’t create too many clear cut chances of note. We simply didn’t remain calm enough and again, that’s something we need to learn from.

I think the formation suited us better and we looked way more comfortable with the back four. Dycey, Watson and Rico looked pretty comfortable until the red card and, while I’ve been disappointed with Wardrop so far, he’s had a bit of bad luck with the injury he was carrying against QOTS and then the sending off on Saturday, so willing to give him the benefit of the doubt at this early stage in the season.

The midfield was what really impressed me - Easton, Frizzell and McCabe bossed it when they settled into the game and there was some really nice play to connect with the front 3.

Gal worked his socks off as ever and just needs that first goal to get him off the mark. Whilst it was great to see Callum Smith back - he had a quiet game in terms of his impact on the attack, but he worked tirelessly. Gabby McGill was the guy that really impressed though - took his goal well, ran at defenders and never stopped. He was the one signing I was pretty indifferent about initially, but more performances like that and I think we’ve uncovered a wee gem!

As I say, as disappointing as it is to surrender the lead after being so dominant, I think there is way more for us to take away in terms of positives, rather than dwelling on the outcome.

It’s just important we learn from that and take the same attitude, effort and work rate into Saturday against Falkirk.

Was a great performance except for Sam at right back, then the youngster McDonald struggled just as Sam did when he came on. Apart from right back (and possible left back) we looked excellent and I would be happy with that team moving forward. Got my wish that Agnew was standing beside Murray and I hope he remains there, at half time when he came out he burst into a jog to get to the dug out and looked like he could barely run. 

 

Sam was naive, stupid to tackle, dive or not he should just have stood up as the guy was going nowhere, he had a few fouls before that despite being on a yellow and to do what he done was clueless. After he got sent off we done well until the subs came on, I can not understand what Murray was trying to achieve. When they got the 1st goal I feared the worst.

 

Now onto Falkirk who's 2 best players are their wingers Morrison and Nesbitt, our worst 2 positions are our right back and left back so I hope we do have the Indian sign over them otherwise we could get beat, 1 point from 9 for a full time team is close to "sack the manager" territory. Let's hope we beat them by scoring more than we lose.

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Still the course of an entire season to go of course. But today is a must win IMO. While we’re in this league the play-offs at the very least have to be our aim. The players and management have not only said that but that they want to go one better. But even disregarding that, 1/6 points and  1 win in 6 games is a poor return. 4/9 points is by no means great either but is at least salvageable and something to work from. Any less than that though and I think we’re struggling already. We should be looking to win today and win our next two games to see out the month. No reason why we can’t but not sure at all that we have the consistency to do it. 

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1 hour ago, airdrieman said:

Still the course of an entire season to go of course. But today is a must win IMO. While we’re in this league the play-offs at the very least have to be our aim. The players and management have not only said that but that they want to go one better. But even disregarding that, 1/6 points and  1 win in 6 games is a poor return. 4/9 points is by no means great either but is at least salvageable and something to work from. Any less than that though and I think we’re struggling already. We should be looking to win today and win our next two games to see out the month. No reason why we can’t but not sure at all that we have the consistency to do it. 

I'm more in hope than confident today, did play some good football for first hour last week though as the Dumbarton commentators said we are easy to get at. Agree we need some sort of result today ♦️

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1 hour ago, Eric the half a b said:

I'm more in hope than confident today, did play some good football for first hour last week though as the Dumbarton commentators said we are easy to get at. Agree we need some sort of result today ♦️

Never in doubt 3-1Airdrie♦️♦️♦️♦️

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9 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:

A good striker and we could have won this game, 

Have to agree with this.  We actually played really well today but there was a lack of quality with our finishing.  We dominated periods of the game, closed Falkirk out for large chunks and as the game went on our passing became really crisp.  Especially in the first part of the second half.  But we had too many opportunities that were squandered.  It was all I could think about when Gowser talked about true finishers like Coyle and Mccoist.  In the right place at the right time 

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12 minutes ago, FLDiamond said:

Have to agree with this.  We actually played really well today but there was a lack of quality with our finishing.  We dominated periods of the game, closed Falkirk out for large chunks and as the game went on our passing became really crisp.  Especially in the first part of the second half.  But we had too many opportunities that were squandered.  It was all I could think about when Gowser talked about true finishers like Coyle and Mccoist.  In the right place at the right time 

We will never have a Coyle again, maybe another day another game and we could have scored 4,just hard to take at the moment. 

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7 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:

We will never have a Coyle again, maybe another day another game and we could have scored 4,just hard to take at the moment. 

Mixed emotions today while enjoyed the game disappointed at the result. The difference today Falkirk scored with first 2 chances we overplayed things around the box and the first touch from some was poor. I was not overly impressed with Falkirk thought we more than matched them sadly we squandered too many opertunities.

Last week the game management last 30min  was awful today with roles reversed it was just as bad. Imo there are some good signs and can't fault the effort the team are putting in but we need to defend much better than we are as although season just started 1 point from 3 games is not good enough ♦️

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Murray must be tearing his hair though, tactically we are poor  and that is down to him, but slipping when good chance to score, missing  a header from a yard out, leaning back when striking a ball, cost us today, Is gabby just not fit  that he was replaced, he is still more likely to score than his replacement, 2 full backs and a striker  are needed as soon as, 

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No harm to Gallagher, he gets his share of goals each season but lately all he seems to do is trot around the pitch like a dressage pony. We badly need a bit of physicality and height in the forward line. Gabby McGinn showed exactly how it should be done for someone so young. I know it's not Gal's game to be fair, but he needs to start driving at defences with the ball and making defenders commit. We had ten corners today and slightly less last week. Nothing is coming from them, not because of a lack of quality delivery in my opinion, more a lack of an attacking presence up front. I would like to think that Aissa will return next week and make a difference, as on today's showing he was badly missed.

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I disagree with the consensus I actually don't think we played well at all. Certainly plenty of possession and pressure but we created almost 0 chances and I think Robbie Mutch made one save the entire game. Given the talent of guys like Easton, McCabe, Smith, Gallagher and Angew  that is a concern to me. McGill took his goal well but Gallagher and Smith should be doing much better with their headers and what Jordan Allan was playing at when the ball fell to him I don't know. I really want him to do well but I just don't see what he brings at all at the moment. Other than that though it was exclusively hopeful balls or stramashes in and around the box which just isn't good enough. I said this last season but we're still too reticent to just have a shot at goal at times.  

Once again the goals we're conceding are far too soft. I like Scott Walker but he wasn't at it today at all (not match fit?) with both goals coming down his side and Fordyce has to do much better for the first goal also. The one thing you can usually say about an Ian Murray team is that they're organised and defensively sound but we can't even hang our hat on that at the moment. 

Not having a proper holding or ball-winning midfielder is killing us. Put a Paul Paton in that side and I think we win last week's game and today, they'd give us a much better foundation and chance of retaining the ball and getting an equaliser. You'd never have known we had a man advantage IMO. We have the same problem as last season but in the inverse. Last season our entire midfield was made up of holding or more defensive (or literally defenders) minded players. This season we have a midfield of talented ball players but nobody that is going to go haring after balls, getting physical or winning the important first and second balls. There's just no balance there. Our buildup play is painfully slow. We're a goal down and have a man advantage, show a bit of urgency FFS! What doesn't help in that regard is that we still don't really have any proper width. Walker (and Wardrop) and Quitongo are never going to bomb forward and put crosses in or even be an attacking outlet. McGill has shown up well so far but he's not a wide player. He's taken his goals well and the long diagonal can be effective but he's never going to beat a man or put a dangerous cross into the box. Play him upfront and let him dominate physically. I've liked Smith out wide previously but he wasn't in the game today at all. Neither was Gal and unfortunately I never have any faith we're going to score when Jordan Allan is on the park. 

I still think there's a lot of talent in that team but, unfortunately, as is often the case Murray does not know how to set them up or get the best out of them. He's already abandoned the 3-5-2 which was clearly the system he planned to play. Fair enough but this current system isn't working either. I'm sure he'll muddle his way into his best team and system at some point like he usually does. But... that's not what I want from my manager. I want a manager who knows his best team and plays them in their best position and who can respond to the game taking place in front of them. None of which Murray has ever done particularly well unfortunately. 

He has repeatedly said that he wants to go one better than last season i.e. win the league. You can only really judge the manager and the team they put together by their own target and we're miles off that at the moment. 1/9 points and 1 win in 7 games is abysmal even not taking that target into account. You have to be winning your home games and we couldn't even beat a team playing with 10 men for 45 minutes. Dire. Not exaggerating to say we probably have to win or at the very least remain unbeaten for the rest of the first quarter if we want to have any chance of challenging at the right end of the table. 

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26 minutes ago, diamondman said:

Sadly true.

As soon as he came on that was game over for me (well as soon as Falkirk scored their first it was game over but you know what I mean). Like I said I really want him to do well so it doesn't give me any pleasure saying that but I don't see what value he brings to the team at all. 

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