Livingston 2 - 1 Airdrie

Airdrie travelled to Livingston to take on the bookies “champions elect” for a match I thought would be simply another tool to judge the level of Airdrie’s young team. Would we take anything from the match, would we see the blood and guts display shown against Ayr United, would the display be hampered with thoughts of playing against the SPL’s Kilmarnock on Wednesday night?

Before the Livingston game Airdrie had received eight yellow cards and three red for on the most part overzealous refereeing, Jamie Bain and Ryan Wallace was serving a suspension for being sent off last week.

The Teams

Livingston: Vs Airdrie

Bullock, Vs Ridgers
Craig Barr, Vs Stallard
Kyle Jacobs, Vs Grant
Hastings, Vs Gibson
Talbot, Vs McGregor
Fox, Vs Keast
Keaghan Jacobs, Vs Devlin
Sinclair, Vs McCord
Russell, Vs Donnelly
Winters, Vs Gemmill
Bobby Barr Vs Johnston
Subs: Vs Subs
McDowall, Vs Gianluca
Malone, Vs Watt
Conway, Vs Burns
De Vita, Vs Sally
McNulty Vs Cane 

Livingston Football Club underestimated the Airdrie travelling support and maybe 50 fans were left outside the ground at kick off, the two turnstiles  at the away end were simply not enough to allow everyone easy access to the ground.

For those stuck outside Jimmy Boyle deployed the team in a 4-5-1 formation and the game started with a bang, Scott Gemmill with an assist from McCord scored his fourth Goal in five games to give Airdrie some breathing room. For a further ten minutes of the first half Airdrie dominated until Livingston’s experience started to kick in.

Livingston got there (unfortunately) deserved equaliser on 25 minutes Iain Russell, grandson of Ian McMillan, scored from closed range after the ball ping ponged around the penalty box.

For the first time this season our right and left backs were getting drawn out of position leaving the wings exposed and it’s from here that Livi made their chances, Mark Ridgers kept us in the match pulling off four or five saves before the break.

In our past reports we’ve stated that the team look more accomplished when in a 4-4-2 formation, yesterday’s match against Livingston once again confirmed that theory when at half time Frazer Keast was replaced by Tony Watt. The change was dramatic Watt at only sixteen has so much strength and he is our best player at holding up the ball allowing space for our midfield to catch up with play.

Livingston had a few half chances before Hastings cleared off the line on Airdrie's third shot in a row, it would have been a carbon copy of Livi’s equalizer if we had managed to force it over the line. Airdrie’s best chance of the game came when the Livingston keeper came out of his box to challenge for the ball, Bullock and Watt both went up to header the ball and it broke to Airdrie’s McCord his shot looked like it was destined for the back of the net, but suddenly the right hand side post sprouted legs and moved to get in the balls way it broke to a Livi defender and was cleared.

Livingston went on to win the very entertaining match and the Airdrie lads showed that with maybe one or two small tweaks they can hold their own against even the team who are considered the best in the league.