Airdrie Match Report: Forfar 1 Vs Airdrie 2

Boyles Babes made it two wins on the road in a row and that leaves us unbeaten for the month of September: Two home draws and a win leaves us sitting in fifth an one point outside the playoff spot but with a long long way to go.

With no bus heading north the talk in the car was of formations and how Jimmy would manage to fit three midfielders McCord, Devlin and Stevenson in to the team and not be unbalanced, the obvious answer was to play 4-5-1 but who would fit in on the left wing? In the end we decided Watt or Gemmill would be used as a sub allowing Muir or Wallace to play o the wing.

Forfar: Vs. Airdrie

Gallacher, Vs. Ridgers,

McCulloch, Vs. Bain,

Tod (Smith 87), Vs. Grant,

Bishop (Sellars 49), Vs. Gibson,

Bolocheweckyj, Vs. Lovering,

Gibson (Ross Campbell 63), Vs. McCord,

Iain Campbell, Vs. Stevenson (McGregor 78),

Mowat, Vs. Devlin,

Martyn Fotheringham, Vs. Johnston (Wallace 59),

Templeman, Vs. Gemmill,

Deasley. Vs. Watt (Donnelly 69).

Subs Not Used:

McLean, Vs. Szpilcynski,

Brady. Vs. Sally

Gibson returned to the heart of the defence after his suspension last week and Stallard dropped out suffering from a foot injury, Jimmy Boyle had opted to go 4-5-1 but instead of replacing one of the forwards, Scott Gemmill took up an advanced left wing position.

The opening 45 minutes consisted of half chances and missed opportunities for the Diamonds, both McCord and Watt could have opened the scoring before Forfar had their first real chance.

Rhys Devlin played a loose pass that the Forfar number 11 Fotheringham raced on to, Johnston raced after him and did enough to distract him.

On 20 minutes McCord had another chance to open the scoring after Gemmill broke away down the left hand side; McCord could only place the ball in to the arms of Gallacher.

On 25 minutes the match went from being quite a balanced match to Forfar being in control and as usual it only took one mistake.

Martyn Fotheringham sent in a very tame corner that Ridgers had covered, whether he was distracted or simply lost concentration it makes no difference, the ball landed at the feet of Michael Bolocheweckyj for the simplest tap in I’ve seen in a long time.

Our play just seemed to disintegrate after that and although Forfar didn’t make many more clear cut chances they finished the half the stronger side.

As fans we’re never sure what gets said in the changing rooms at half time, but between Boyle, Nipper and Lumber they must be coming up with the goods as Airdrie came out of the changing rooms on fire. We pummelled the Forfar goal and finally McCord got his just rewards, Philip Johnston put in a cross that broke to McCord who in turn slammed it in to the back of the net.

Speaking of pummelling it seemed Forfar had done their home work on us, Johnston every time he touched the ball was double teamed and had to ride several tackles, Boyle may have noticed that and a few minutes after the goal substituted him for Wallace.

Airdrie were now in control and we continued to attack, whether the relatively unknown Wallace had escaped Forfar’s radar he was given much more room than Johnston but even with that space we couldn’t seem to break Forfar down for the winner. Boyle decided Watt had done his job and Donnelly stepped in to the breach.

On 75 minutes Ryan Wallace put Airdrie in the lead, he once again found the space Johnston lacked in the first half: Jamie Stevenson split the Forfar defence with a pass and Wallace ran on to it, keeping his feet after a stumble in the penalty box he slotted the ball under Gallacher and made it 2-1 Airdrie.

But in age old Airdrie fashion the game was not over!

In another match that saw very few tough tackles Airdrie were once again about to suffer from accumulated slightly late or mistimed challenges - yellow cards will one day cause us problems but as long as these lads are playing with fire and passion it will be forgiven by most fans.

This time it was Grant who was sent off, he had been booked in the first half and was sent off in the second for a tackle that was definitely late but not in any way dangerous. Boyle was forced in to his last change of the match McGregor replaced Stevenson and Forfar went on the attack.

For the last five minutes of the game Airdrie battled on with only nine men on the park. Lovering who had moved in to the centre of defence clashed with Templeman Campbell and for a change came of the worse, his head split open and he had to go off for treatment.

He never made it back on the park after the ref then told him to go and change his blood soaked shirt.

Forfar attacked for the last few minutes but just couldn’t find their way back in to the game. We hung on for the three points and only our second win of the season.