Accies (1) v. Airdrie (1): 17/9/05

AIRDRIE UTD

Hamilton

After successfully humbling two of the pre-season favourites in St. Johnstone and Dundee, Airdrie had to face a whole tougher proposition today in Hamilton. Unlike the previous two sides, Billy Reid’s outfit are not going to be under achievers this season and if Airdrie wanted anything from this one they knew they’d need to dig extremely deep. The choice of McPhee on the right wing may have helped with that thinking to a certain degree. After taking a short spell to settle into formation and the pace of the game Airdrie got their passing game going to great effect. With Alex Neil looking good enough to get a game in Airdrie’s midfield Airdrie slowly got a grip on proceedings. Stephen McKenna was first to go close when hitting the post from a corner then having his follow up cleared off the line. Accies responded later in the half with identical results. But that was the only similarity between the sides. Neil apart Accies were pretty hopeless and not getting close to competing. Airdrie’s only problem was finding the end product their fluent style deserved. Prunty, McLaren, McPhee and Twigg all had chances but couldn’t breach McEwan’s goal.

Airdrie did take the lead in style after the half hour mark. Willie McLaren used his pace to scorch his way past Accies defence before thrashing his shot past McEwan. That the first half would end only 1-0 to Airdrie though was a travesty, such was their dominance. The defence worked extremely well, Barkey and McKeown had a real battle trying to hold Marvyn and Alex Neil but it was down the left that Airdrie were really winning with Dunn and McLaren looking really sharp.

The second half was a completely different affair. With a few minutes of the second half Accies Tunbridge reached over the top rope and tagged in ‘fat’ Pat Keogh to ignite a footballing equivalent of a “Royal Rumble”. Talk about ‘Route One’ football! I’d hazard a guess that Reid hasn’t reached page 2 of his coaching manual yet? If it’s results that count though then I’m sure he and the Hamilton fans will be pleased with what followed. Attack after attack was launched down the throats of the Airdrie defence. Most of them were easily dealt with but a hastily given free kick rattled an upright early in the half. Airdrie looked to have doubled the lead but a Twigg (?) header was just off target when it looked like a goal was coming again. However after settling down after Accies substitution they snuck back into it in what appeared controversial circumstances. Fat Pat looked to have wrestled McManus to the ground and, as Carrigan squared into the box for McKenzie to score, McManus was still down. Airdrie moaned to no avail.

Airdrie lost their way as the half wore on. Without McPhee up front the forwards weren’t holding the ball up and with McLaren looking tired, Barkey looking lost and Dunn pegged back, Airdrie weren’t getting forward or even holding the ball up. Accies continued to bombard their way forward at every opportunity but in all honesty looked about as predictable as an episode of Corrie. Accies will point to a possible penalty claim but from my viewpoint Graham Jones appeared to throw himself down in theatrical fashion.