Airdrie hold Ross County to a draw 4/11/01

By By Gordon Thomson
November 3 2004

Airdrie failed on Saturday to retain their two point lead at the top of Bells League Division One. Ross County lead at half time as the diamonds struggled to find their form. Owen Coyle claimed the equaliser but that only masked Airdrie's shortcomings...

Coyle     Ross County came to Airdrie in good form and looked set to end Airdrie's unbeaten league run with the diamonds looking very out of sorts. Gone was the fluent passing from early in the season and in was a hopeless looking long ball game. McCall managed to freshen things up a bit at half time though, and in the end we were worthy of a draw, but lessons will have to be learned. Is it just me, or is the football looking very like it was in the mid nineties? Remember it is only November, and with the CVA still not called, our league position might just be camouflaging a club in crisis. Ian McCall was quoted in a weekend tabloid claiming things were not right at the club. I know a few folks who could have told him that. When KPMG locked out Archibald they were quoted as saying that they wanted a long term solution. They didn't want the situation dragging on as Archibald had long enough to put together a package. Well, Archibald had six months, and the Innes/Gemmill mob are now wntering their NINTH month. Why? There is still a lot going on in the background I fear. Rumours about who is going to invest in the club. People hanging around who I've seen with my own eyes. Alliances I've heard being forged I wouldn't have dreamt of... What can we do in the meantime? Personally, I still want to see Airdrie top the league. Whatever happens, should it be someone wanting to buy out Gemmill, or someone to augment his bid, or just Gemmill sewing it up himself, it surely can only be good for Airdrie to be top and with a chance of the SPL? One thing for sure though is that it still doesn't smell good. As for Saturdays game? I personally hate the sweeper system. We had to put up with it for years with Doddie. He could make it work at times though. Who didn't like it when we had Lawrence, Fashanu and Coyle or Lawrence, Cooper and Harvey as our forward lines? But when he didn't play 3 up front it was woeful. Many weeks in a row we sucked so bad that the crowds would haemmorage and only come back for big games. McCalls team have done well, but we now seem to be drawing all the time. The goals are drying up and we are creating less chances. Do McManus and James need a sweeper? Would we be better off with another midfielder to create more chances?