Airdrie 1 vs. Brechin 1

Airdrie maintain our unbeaten record at home with another draw in front of an attendance 946, Scott Gibson scored our equaliser but was then later sent off for the defenders second bookable offence.

International matches can either be a blessing or a curse, after our first win of the season against Stenhousemuir we really could have been doing without the break to try and build on the victory. Mark Ridgers was ruled out with a groin strain and it was considered a week too soon for Gary Muir to return. New signings Adam Szpilcynski and Chris Craig would both feature.

Airdrie Utd: Versus Brechin:

Adam Szpilcynski, 1 Craig Nelson,
Jamie Bain, 2 Paul McLean,
Paul Lovering, 3 Andrew Cook,
Euen Grant, 4 Gerry McLauchlan,
Scott Gibson, 5 Euan Moyes
Kieron Stallard, 6 Craig Molloy
Ryan McCord, 7 Kevin Byers
Rhys Devlin, 8 Barry Smith
Scott Gemmill, 9 Rory McAllister
Tony Watt. 10 Charlie King
Phil Johnston, 11 Callum Booth
Subs
Harry McGregor, 12 Neil Janczyk
Chris Craig, 14 David McKenna
Scott Sally, 15 Mark Docherty
Aiden Malone, 16 Jamie Redman
Gianluca Corvi, 17..................
....................18 David Scott 

I heard yesterday before kickoff that Ryan McCord had picked up a niggling injury but he would still be in the starting eleven, this in a way gives me my first discussion point? If McCord was injured why was he played? Devlin I think is a better midfielder than winger (I’m not faulting his contribution on the wing) and as we had new signing Chris Craig a natural winger on the bench, should Jimmy have kept McCord in cotton wool for a week?

In comparison to some of the games we’ve seen in the past few weeks Saturday’s game was almost pedestrian in some points, Brechin as we all know are expected to at least take one of the playoff spots and in the first half they showed us why.  

Brechin were very difficult to break down and there attack led by Rory McAllister was quick and precise. There strength and marking kept us at bay.

In the opening minutes of the first half we were forced so far back our midfield were not in any position to support the attack and that left us vulnerable.  Craig Malloy of Brechin seemed to be getting a lot of space in the midfield and on a few occasion just seemed to wander in to dangerous areas with no one picking him up.  It was his partner in the midfield who opened the scoring, on 23 minutes Kevin Byers shot from just outside the penalty box and it was 1-0 Brechin.

A few minutes later it should have been two, in fact from where I was sitting it didn’t look as though Szpilcynski got a hand to the ball until it bounced off one of the advertising boards, I was sure the net was going to bulge. Rory McAllister had beaten the offside trap and it was only from a great save that the score line stayed 1-0.

 Airdrie’s best chance of the half came from a Ryan McCord free kick. On any other day his shot would have sent the fans in to an uproar, Craig Nelson in the Brechin goal had other ideas. His dive shown on the Robert Dalzell website shows him tipping the ball over the bar.

With the score at 1-0 to Brechin half time couldn’t come quick enough.

If the first half was all Brechin, the second half was pretty even, that is to say we fought our way back in to the match.

Eight minutes in to the half Airdrie were back on level terms; Phil Johnston’s corner was headed in to the back of the net by Scott Gibson after a penalty box scramble.

On 56 minutes Rory McAllister went for an early shower: His first booking had come from a tangle with Scott Gibson in the first half that resulted in both players receiving a yellow card. The sending off was for chasing down a 50/50 ball and seemingly catching Szpilcynski with his boot.It was soft but who cares the advantage swung our way.
Twenty minutes later and things were even once again, Gibson received his second yellow for a tackle on Molloy, and this made it eight yellow cards and two reds in a game that that saw very few bad tackles.

In the dying minutes Tony Watt could have stolen all three points for the Diamonds, substitute Scott Sally set the ball up for Tony to turn and shoot, the shot rattled the post and bounced out of play.
That’s twice in five games we have been prevented from winning games by the post either moving or suddenly being six inches larger than they really are!

Once again we saw another spirited performance and a few old faces have started returning to games.

Let’s see what we can do against Peterhead next week.