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East Fife v Airdrie


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When I saw the line up it confirmed that Murray will always be cautious so the feel good factor from last week was depressed immediately. No Gallagher even when Roy deservedly dropped out. It was made worse when we clearly line up with a back three who essentially vacated the wide areas as they expected McDonald and Thomson to track back whilst Nat could stroll about in front of that. It looked like a 3-1-4-2 as Carrick and Smith took on the tasks up front. That lasted for about 6 minutes until our Barcelona "play it out from Hutton" led to a very lazy pass by Nat. I am not quite sure how Davidson managed to flat foot Hutton with the shot. The first goal matters in all football and it was EF who took up the momentum by doing the simple things quickly and with drive. When Watt was allowed to drive on and on and on , no one took the responsibility to stop him, Credit to him for that play but it exposed how bad our set up was. It could and maybe should have been more as we went back to a 4-2-4 as Millar departed, having been rarely seen up against Agnew etc. The 2nd half fight back was minimal and EF scored again . Agnew's 4th was a great shot and move. Wedderburn also trooped off almost as slowly as he had played and EF let us have some good possession but we had loads of sclaffs and weak shots. The goal we did get was poor consolation for a dire set up and absence of drive at the crucial times. Yes they did work quite well but the set up did for them in first hqlf. As I predicted EF were thoroughly organised and we never matched them. They look good for a top four place. Saw Murray having a spirited chat at the end with a few disgruntled fans, and the players will need a pick up for next week. Mind you Clyde beat Falkirk so we have little to worry about ! 

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Absolutely brilliant stuff today. It would be extremely difficult to pick a man of the match as everyone put in an absolute shift. It's been coming. We dominated the Clyde and peterhead games but just weren't clinical enough. Today everything seemed to click and we found our attacking rhythm.

Special mention for Tonks and Wallace. The midfield certainly grabbed the glory by sharing four goals but the front two were fantastic.

Airdrie's chopping and changing was bizarre. Bringing off Millar and Wedderburn for attacking players just left them absolutely open for the taking. Obviously their system wasn't working but that seemed mental even without hindsight. I've no idea what anyone sees in Nat Wedderburn. He's been brutal every time I've seen him. Slows everything down, no pace, can't pass. No idea why Gallagher started on the bench either. He's always looked a decent player and was probably the one Airdrie player who looked dangerous today.

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35 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

When I saw the line up it confirmed that Murray will always be cautious so the feel good factor from last week was depressed immediately. No Gallagher even when Roy deservedly dropped out. It was made worse when we clearly line up with a back three who essentially vacated the wide areas as they expected McDonald and Thomson to track back whilst Nat could stroll about in front of that. It looked like a 3-1-4-2 as Carrick and Smith took on the tasks up front. That lasted for about 6 minutes until our Barcelona "play it out from Hutton" led to a very lazy pass by Nat. I am not quite sure how Davidson managed to flat foot Hutton with the shot. The first goal matters in all football and it was EF who took up the momentum by doing the simple things quickly and with drive. When Watt was allowed to drive on and on and on , no one took the responsibility to stop him, Credit to him for that play but it exposed how bad our set up was. It could and maybe should have been more as we went back to a 4-2-4 as Millar departed, having been rarely seen up against Agnew etc. The 2nd half fight back was minimal and EF scored again . Agnew's 4th was a great shot and move. Wedderburn also trooped off almost as slowly as he had played and EF let us have some good possession but we had loads of sclaffs and weak shots. The goal we did get was poor consolation for a dire set up and absence of drive at the crucial times. Yes they did work quite well but the set up did for them in first hqlf. As I predicted EF were thoroughly organised and we never matched them. They look good for a top four place. Saw Murray having a spirited chat at the end with a few disgruntled fans, and the players will need a pick up for next week. Mind you Clyde beat Falkirk so we have little to worry about ! 

What makes playing MacDonald and Thomson at wing-back even worse is that one of them must have been playing out of position at left wing-back when there's an, apparently, competent and promising left-back/left-sided player on the bench. 

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3 minutes ago, airdrieman said:

What makes playing MacDonald and Thomson at wing-back even worse is that one of them must have been playing out of position at left wing-back when there's an, apparently, competent and promising left-back/left-sided player on the bench. 

Was Thomson not playing right-mid?

I thought he was your best player this afternoon. Wouldn't go as far as strolling it, although he did walk to Bayview from his home in Methil...

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3 minutes ago, Angusfifer said:

Was Thomson not playing right-mid?

I thought he was your best player this afternoon. Wouldn't go as far as strolling it, although he did walk to Bayview from his home in Methil...

In the first half he was wide left until we went 2 goals down. He was on the right after that and did have quite a good second half but it was all redundant as you got a 3rd and 4th as we flattered. Did not know he lived there but at least his home town team could celebrate. thought Wallace was really bright today and your partnerships all over the park seemed to know what they were supposed to do.

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3 hours ago, Angusfifer said:

The most pleasing thing about this win is that clearly Airdrieonians are no mugs. They had decent spells of possession throughout the game. 

Just as I refuse to get despondent after disappointing performances I equally think that improvements can be made after our most complete league showing to date.

But the positives were all there to be seen; quick out of the blocks, great variation between possession football, getting the ball into the channels early and good pressing from the back. For the most part the back four were excellent.

Only the one negative. Game management at 4-0 up. Keep possession, no need to commit too many players forward. Keep your shape and invite the the opposition to leave gaps at the back.

9 out of 10 performance though. Bring on the Raith...

Angus for Manager! 

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Well that was pretty fine yesterday, you knew somebody was going to be getting a gubbing soon and it just happened to be Airdrie, everybody played well and not a weak point anywhere in the side, the only disappointment was losing that late goal as once again our back line was tremendous and surely there are no more doubters regarding Higgy, if he keeps this level of performance up he’s surely got to be getting awards soon!!!
My only gripe was that goalswise it should have been more, but I’m greedy that way!!!
Dispose of the Rovers next week and win our game in hand and we’re top of the League, simples!!![emoji1303]

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Bought the game to watch the full game back rather than the highlights. What an unbelievable performance.
Smashed them for the whole game and could have easily scored 10. Almost a complete performance apart from conceding a goal.
Take the same result on Tuesday and on Saturday
The highlights should take a bit of editing as there were quite a few!
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Watching the highlights 3rd and 4th goals are things of beauty. Some move for 3rd goal some amount of passes before being slotted into the net. Airdrie defending for the first 2 goals wouldn’t look out of place in an under 10s game.

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