By C.MacFarlane
September 8 2006

AS AIRDRIE 1 VALE UTD 2

Airdrie were knocked out the league cup by fellow first division side Vale United at Airdrie sports centre. A goal in each half was enough to see the men from Glasgow through and overall probably deserved on the balance of play.

Airdrie made two changes to the team that won on Saturday. Out went Edgar through injury and Neil Pardoe due to work and in came S Graham and C MacFarlane who started up front due to us having 1 available striker. With a shortage on the bench trialist Gary Thompson made up the third sub.

Unlike the last 3 games Airdrie were on the back foot for the first 25 minutes of the game with a strong vale team pressing Airdrie back at every opportunity. Their strength and height in the middle of the park was proving vital as Airdrie struggled to get a foothold in the game. However Airdrie had the best chance to take the lead after 15 minutes in a rare attack. Good build up play saw Kenny play a good pass between the center half’s onto McFarlane who ran in on goal but as he tried to go round the vale keeper the keeper got a vital touch and knocked the ball away. Airdrie's back 3 were having to dig in under pressure and restricted vale to half chances and a couple of efforts from outside the box. Just as Airdrie were gaining a foothold vale took the lead when a shot from 25 yards skidded on the wet conditions and bounced of Johnny straight to the number 10.incredibly his effort hit the bar but the ball rebounded nicely for him to head vale into the lead. Airdrie had more play after this but created little and were lucky not to go 2 behind when vale had a header chalked off for offside. The half finished with the Easterhouse men 1 up.

No changes at half time and the second half started like the first with vale pressing Airdrie but with little end product. For Airdrie the passing and movement just wasn’t there due to the heavy conditions and the physical presence of the opposition. Halfway through the second half vale increased their lead. A corner from the left was knocked out by Airdrie’s defence straight to the number 8 who hammered a wicked ball across the goal where cooper’s attempted clearance sliced of his foot into the back of the net.2-0 and a long way back for Airdrie. However the Airdrie men got a lifeline 2 minutes later when Kenny, after a good run was adjudged to have been brought down in the box. Kenny Pardoe, Airdrie’s leading scorer calmly fired the ball into the net for his 4th of the season. Airdrie then brought Thompson on for McFarlane and within 2 minutes a great run into the box saw 3 men challenge Thompson just as he went to shoot and the ball was cleared. Vale nearly scored a third when a free kick from the left grazed Rowan’s back post. Despite having 10 men for the last 15 minutes vale held out well and in the last 5 minutes Airdrie’s final chance saw the keeper pull of a fine save from Kenny’s free kick. Last chance gone and Airdrie were out the cup.

Overall probably a deserved win for vale as they had the better of the game and created a few more chances. They are a strong, physical team with 5 or 6 players at least 6ft3 down the spine of the team and they use it well. Airdrie struggled to cope with this from open play although the defence coped well from set pieces and the like. For Airdrie a disappointing performance although more changes to the side and the heavy conditions of the park didn’t help. They battled hard and the defence was strong throughout but 2 slack goals conceded again proved too much to overcome and they exited the competition. They now focus on another difficult encounter with Blochairn star on Saturday. Games last year between us were good encounters and hopefully Saturday will be no different.

Team

Rowan
R Graham Cooper Stewart
S Graham Smith Hendrie K Pardoe Morrison
MacFarlane Gray
Subs Thompson for MacFarlane
Khorasani
Burton