AS Airdrie 3-1 St Marys

AS Airdrie 3-1 St Marys

30/5/2009

Airdrie finished off the season with a fine home win over a battling St Marys side. The 3 points ensured a 5th placed finish. No changes were made to the team after last weeks fine victory, one tweak in Midfield with Kenny Pardoe moving central and Ross Graham moving to the left side. Smith and Burton returned to the side and joined Hetherington on the Airdrie bench.

Airdrie started brightly enough with Gray and Brady's pace causing St Mary's backline some problems as they employed a dangerous offside trap to thwart Airdrie's front two. St Marys themselves enjoyed decent spells of possesion without really troubling Rowan too much. The games turning point came midway through the first half as Ross Graham was harshly judged to have handled in the box, in truth the ball was bobbling everywhere on a very dry bumpy pitch. As is fast becoming the norm Rowan dived to his right to hold the spot kick. Shortly after Airdrie took the lead when St Marys offside trap failed, Lindsays measured through ball split the defence, who were pre occupied with trying to play Gray offside, and found Shaw who ran in on the blind side, beat the keeper to the ball and stroked home a tidy finish to give Airdrie the advantage which they held till half time. Not before another moment of brilliance from Rowan, St Marys had decent possesion and were really pressing Airdrie back, with the ball in the box the away forward got a good connection on the ball 5 yards from goal it looked a certain equaliser but Rowan's reactions were top notch as he clawed the ball away in the blink of an eye underlining his position in my opinion of the best keeper in the league. (That will be a pint on Saturday Johnny!)

Second half saw a short spell of pressure from the away side and early on Airdrie introduced fresh legs with Smith adopting his role in central midfield, kenny Pardoe moved out left with Ross Graham going to full back, Leishman the man giving way after a decent shift in hot conditions, to combat the away sides good start, it wasn't long till Airdrie regained the initiative and created a few chances, it was two nil shortly after As Gray was on hand to slot the ball home from close range after good work down Airdrie's right flank. Hetherington then replaced Brady and almost got on the scoresheet right away with a good run towards the area however he was out of luck with the effort. St marys did get themselves back into the match with 20 minutes to go after another one of thoose bobling ball in the box wasn't dealt with and the ball was prodded past Rowan to reduce the defecit. Burton was intorduced to the back line for Ross Graham who took a slight knock and St Marys themselves were forced into a change as there keeper limped off with a foot injury. Airdrie had several chances to finish the game off but stand in keeper McCorry did well with the shots fred in at him. Lindsay finally killed the game off as he collected the ball 20 yards out and hit a cracking shot which went right through the keeper before he had time to move.

A fine all round display from back to front and a good run of results to end the season. Man of the Match from me went to John Rowan two stunning saves which definetly made the diffrence between a win and a draw two wins from two as stand in captain cant be argued with. A month off now and Saturdays night out to look forward to. 7:15pm at Springwells bowling club, bring your brain cells to get through Ross Grahams legendary quiz!!

Rowan

Leishman Cooper S.Graham N.Pardoe

Shaw Linsay K.Pardoe R.Graham

Gray Brady

Smith for Leishman (55)

Hetherington for Brady (65)

Burton for R.Graham (75)

 

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