Airdrie v Falkirk, 7th April 2021

[AndyDD]

Well. 

I'm really going to miss you tragic c***s if you do stagger over the line and go up. Will be like starting the season on minus points. 

It was a shame about the camera issues because that was a really rather enjoyable game of football. Played at a good tempo, both teams with chances, at times trading attack for attack. Quite an absorbing watch. Sadly a lot of the chances were either hard to see due to the sun or missed entirely by the cameras in what was the worst showing from pixelott since pre-season. Especially bad in the first half. 

Brilliant result and very heartening performance. Murray got the team and tactics spot on. Having failed to double our lead despite what looked (and sounded) like very good chances to do so, I was definitely fearing another Thistle situation, especially when they scored on the break. This time, however, we didn't throw the game away second half. Max Currie makes the save (not the best penalty you'll see but Currie still has to save it) and Dale Carrick scores a goal that might have fundamentally refloated our boat. Perfectly hit penalty. 

Turner is too good for this league, but great showings also from Ally Roy and Gal up top, O'Reilly, McCann and Crighton. Falkirk did us a big favour by playing to the advantages of our centre halves; Fordyce and Crighton won most if not all of the balls into the box. They also did us a favour by changing things up when we were flagging, albeit the boost we clearly got after the penalty save might have had almost as much of an impact as their quite perplexing (and utterly hilarious) switch up on our belief and energy level. 

A good strike from Telfer to be fair to him and Morrison sticks out big time as a talented player who is a continuous threat, but I was delighted to see Miller and Sammon come on. Utterly inept, especially Miller, who did nothing but gift us freekicks, get himself booked, avoid being booked more than once and just generally look a dickhead. You can see why Falkirk fans are so bealin'. There are a few decent players in that squad and even their liabilities would get a game for most teams in the division so ought to be comfortable, but they look in severe need of a driving force, both on the park and in the dugout. They could also be doing with a plan B that isn't, well, whatever the hell that was. Strangely, I wouldn't fancy Falkirk to cope with the pressure of the playoffs, so they really need to get over the line. They got away with it a bit last night, given that Cove dropped two points. 

Absolutely delighted with that performance and win. Montrose is going to be a really tough game on Saturday but if we replicate that performance we will win the match. What a bonkers league. I love it. 

 

[latapythelegend]

1 hour ago, Glenmavis Diamond said:

It must be tough for Falkirk knowing they've been beaten by a team whose manager picks their starting 11 with a tombola. 

Can we borrow it? At least it means there might be weeks where we don't see Ben Hall or Akeel Francis. 

 

I've already resigned myself to watching us in this league next year. There is no chance we will go to Cove and get a good result and we do not have the bottle for play-offs. 

[Rocco]

I've already resigned myself to watching us in this league next year.

We probably will still be in the league next year but I certainly won’t be watching!

[airdrieman]

Falkirk's inability to beat us or any other full-time side in League One is one of the funniest ongoing storylines in Scottish football. Tremendous. 

[MrDust]

4 hours ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

Did a bit of digging.

My point when you raised it was that had M&M anything about them they would tell Holt to butt out, clearly they haven’t

 

Two rookie managers going against their employees wishes ?

The pair of them in interviews pre restart were all for Holt's influence, they will know the only way it ends up well for their further careers is if it goes well

Is it a surprise the people at the top bringing someone in to help and it's made us worse ?

 

[Guest Ecosse83]

4 minutes ago, airdrieman said:

Falkirk's inability to beat us or any other full-time side in League One is one of the funniest ongoing storylines in Scottish football. Tremendous. 

You’ve been down here too long mate if that’s tremendous for you!

[airdrieman]

On the game itself, that's as good as we've played in a long time. Turner makes a world of a difference in that midfield. Composed on the ball, always looking to go forward and able to pick out a pass and can muck in with the dirty stuff too. He's far too good for this level but if we'd had a player even like him for the whole season we'd be much more comfortable in a play-off position or better. Hopefully him and Paton will get to play together in the midfield at some point. That's three goals in three games for Ally Roy now. One swallow doesn't make a summer but he looks as if he's playing with confidence and found a bit of form. And as they say, there's no better time to have found a bit of form. Like Turner, we've been crying out for a consistent goal-scorer all season so if he can keep this up he'll make a big difference in our remaining games also. Crighton, Fordyce and McCann were back to something close to their best. Gallagher put in a hell of a shift upfront. He needs a goal but that's also probably as good as he's played in a while. O'Reilly has looked a different player since the re-start. His final ball still isn't quite where we'd want or need it to be but he's causing teams bother with his pace and running the ball into dangerous areas of the park, which at this level can be enough. Having several options for the starting XI and off the bench again makes a huge difference compared to where we were earlier in the season and should hopefully offer an advantage to us in our remaining games. Encouraging that, unlike against Thistle, we kept the heads up after the equaliser and didn't capitulate as I feared we might. 

There are still some obvious problems, however. We're still getting cut open way too easily on the counter-attack. It's a problem that's cost us several goals now and we need to fix it. And Jack McKay... I just don't see what he brings to the team at all. Sloppy and gets caught out far too easily at the back. And he doesn't create or take chances going forward. In fairness to him, he isn't a right-back or winger (and he's not a striker either says you) but he's the obvious weak link and as long as he continues to play it's going to continue to be a problem. 

Our inconsistency is so frustrating. There's no reason why we can't go on and win all of our remaining games. And we could easily do. But we could just as easily lose them all and find ourselves in the bottom-half come the split. We've been here with Murray before. A run of dreadful and insipid performances and results followed by a run of great results and performances. Not being able to put a good run together is infuriating as there isn't a good or consistent team in this league. For example, we're only 6 points off the top now. If we'd beat Thistle and won even a couple of other games that we lost this season we could be top... 

[cb_diamond]

10 hours ago, MSG GTF! said:

Roger

Fair shit your pants at the prospect of a banhammer there didn't you!? From ranting and raving headsgone to "yes sir" in one page. No courage in your convictions clearly. Nice metaphor for Falkirk generally last night...

[NavyBlueArmy1876]

Worth saying if that useless diddy Keena stuck his penalty away (or even Fotheringham doing likewise rather than his hilarious miss right on half time) we'd probably have won the game

Still no where near good enough a performance over the 90 minutes and we got massively lucky last night though with everyone below us dropping points as well.

 

[AndyDD]

6 minutes ago, NavyBlueArmy1876 said:

Worth saying if that useless diddy Keena stuck his penalty away (or even Fotheringham doing likewise rather than his hilarious miss right on half time) we'd probably have won the game

Still no where near good enough a performance over the 90 minutes and we got massively lucky last night though with everyone below us dropping points as well.

 

True.

But then, if not for some good Mutch saves and our being profligate in front of goal, you'd have been looking at a 2-3 goal deficit after a half hour, so, y'know; that's how it goes. 

 

[Gaz]

3 hours ago, Top Bins said:

What was Lee Miller all about when he came on. Looked like he was pished and wanted to kick everyone and start a fight. Thought the commentary was ok last night tbf unfortunately they were a second in front of the play and the camera was 3 seconds behind the play. That’s bad news if Holt is helping out, he has never been a manager in my book. Taxi please for M+M before it’s too late if it isn’t already!! 

Someone said a few pages ago it was like someone's Dad making up the numbers at fives.

[MSG GTF!]

1 hour ago, cb_diamond said:

Fair shit your pants at the prospect of a banhammer there didn't you!? From ranting and raving headsgone to "yes sir" in one page. No courage in your convictions clearly. Nice metaphor for Falkirk generally last night...

Absolutely not. Stand by everything I said towards Roman Bairn however the fella respectfully asked that we keep things civil, all I did was acknowledged his request with the same level of respect. Off you pop.

[cb_diamond]

11 minutes ago, MSG GTF! said:

Absolutely not. Stand by everything I said towards Roman Bairn however the fella respectfully asked that we keep things civil, all I did was acknowledged his request with the same level of respect. Off you pop.

Not buying it. Your ring fell right out of your trousers. At least Roman Bairn had the courage of his convictions to simply ignore the threat. He's the only winner in this example of dueling banjos civil war.

[MSG GTF!]

23 minutes ago, cb_diamond said:

Not buying it. Your ring fell right out of your trousers. At least Roman Bairn had the courage of his convictions to simply ignore the threat. He's the only winner in this example of dueling banjos civil war.