Airdrie 4 - 0 Albion Rovers (The Battle of Monklands.)

A goal from Sean Lynch a Ryan Donnelly double, a penalty won by Jamie Bain and dispatch by Jamie Stevson gives the Diamonds a comfortable victory against our neighbours in a 4 – 0 victory at home.

I’ve been very distracted this week for personal reasons so never got caught up in any of the pre-game build up. The distraction even went so far as to make me arrive five minutes late for the game. Getting to my seat I asked how had the game started, the response “We’re second best!” didn’t fill me with hope.

The Teams Lined up –

Airdrie Vs. Albion Rovers
McKane - Gaston
Bain - , Reid
Lilley - , O'Byrne.
Stallard - , Ciaran Donnelly,
 Lovering - Boyle,
Stevenson - Chaplain,
Blockley (Owens 67) - Canning,
Lynch - Stevenson
Woodburn (Hill 75) - Love (Gilmartin 67)
Holmes - Gemmell,
Donnelly (Boyle 73) -  Scott (Hamilton 61)
Subs Not Used:
Duncan - Fahey
Morton - Ferry

Four minutes later and all that changed when Sean Lynch broke from the midfield to open the scoring, his close range shot slid by Gaston. Our fans just had time to retake our seats when route one football came in to effect, I’m not sure who sent the ball over the top of the Albion Rovers defence but I do know that it was Ryan Donnelly who was first to react. Racing on to the ball he knocked it around the keeper and it trickled in to the goal. Looking at the pictures on Robert Dalzell’s webpage I’m not sure Donnelly was convinced either (Pictures 5 thru 7).
But Albion Rovers were not done and the next couple of chances fell to them!
The first chance was a goal mouth stramash, it was difficult to tell who hit the first shot in the Airdrie goal mouth, or for that matter the second or third all that matters is that the ball was finally cleared off the line and Airdrie held on to our two goal deficit.
The second came from some poor defending and it was team captain Paul Lovering who saved the day as he got on to the line and prevented a certain goal.
On 41 minutes the game was over, Jamie Bain took the ball on a run from the midfield and rode over three or four tackles some of which could have resulted in a free kick or penalty, if he had been given the chance to hit the shot it may have been a goal of the season, instead he was dragged down and a penalty awarded.
Jamie Stevenson sent the keeper the wrong way to make it three – nil.
On the stroke of half time, Ryan Donnelly got his second goal and the final goal of the game. In a carbon copy of Rovers first chance a stramash in the box, this time however Donnelly got his foot behind the ball and made it four – nil.

In the second half I expected Albion Rovers to push forward and try and earn something from the game. They didn’t they kept the same formation and tried to prevent any further embarrassment. Paul Lovering seemed to enjoy some jovial banter with the Rovers fans at the far side, the Airdrie fans began cheering every pass the team made and we all went home happy. Well everyone but Cairan Donnelly who saw red for elbowing Kieron Stallard in the face.  It looked as though that could develop in to something more than hand bags at dawn but the referee soon brought things to a halt.

So all in all a fine days work, Airdrie win handsomely in front of the largest crowd of the season and I’m glad the local derby caught the imagination of a lot of stay away fans, it was good to see a lot of familiar faces who I’ve not seen in a while.

So the first battle goes to Airdrie with a result that flattered us a little, but who will take the points in the next game?