Airdrie (1) v. Stranraer (0) - 22/10/05

AIRDRIE UTD

Stranraer

FIRST HALFBarely anything positive to write about in the first half. Stranraer hit the crossbar in a non-threatening way through Moore when Docherty could have smothered the ‘attack’ at birth. Airdrie were limited to long range shots from Twigg, McLaren and McKeown. The best move of the half came when Barkey flicked a delightful ball over the mass ranks for Prunty, but his shot was deflected wide by a Stranraer defender for a goal kick!?!? Airdrie suffered a major blow when Twigg went down with a seemingly twisted ankle when challenged by four Stranraer centre-halves.

MATCH UP Just like many teams in this league Stranraer came to sit extremely deep with a monstrosity of a diamond formation four man central defence and relying on the movement of Walker and the cheating skills of the absolutely horrible Moore. Moore is everything that is wrong with football today. A no talent waster who is only good for highly theatrical dives, thumping defenders with his flying elbows, and shocking two footed lunges like the one he performed on David Dunn. The pathetic referee only saw fit to yellow card the lump of crap today, but we should be used to seeing such hopeless refereeing nowadays anyway. Airdrie persisted with playing Barkey at right back when he’s clearly better suited to central midfield. McKeown again played the deep role in midfield with the creative onus falling on the skinny shoulders of McLaren. Docherty played punter this week in place of regular punter McManus. He was just as unsuccessful (insert big sigh emoticon). Every Airdrie attack eventually settled into the heart of the Stranraer mass central defence. Or so it seemed.

SECOND HALF15 minutes into the second half Prunty finally pounced as Stranraer’s backline was finally lured out of their own penalty box. Prunty picked up on the left touchline, drove inside and shot. The move looked a goal all the way, the deflected loop probably helped anyway, Prunty and Airdrie desperately needed that goal sooooo badly. Airdrie still could not do right for doing wrong but hung on for the win without really looking like adding to the lead.

GOING FORWARD It’s hard to be too critical after the side ground out the win. Our ineffectiveness wasn’t really due to lack of effort, it was more in the execution of the simple things. Too many loose passes, fluffed shots, etc., had the manager and the fans screaming abuse throughout. It must be difficult to play against massed defences like this every week. I just can’t help but think that we would be better served with the creative ability of MacDougall on the right flank for starters. It also make you wonder why we pay so much respect to these teams by playing with a spare man ourselves. Why didn’t we, for example, push McKeown up front to mark their sweeper and move Docherty into midfield? How would Stranraer have coped with that? Would they open up more, or would they have put five men in central defence?