By Neil Brown
December 4 2006

AS Airdrie 1-1 Newburgh Juveniles

AS Airdrie hosted Newburgh of Fife in the 3rd round of the Scottish Amateur Cup.
The opening exchanges were cagey on the heavy central park surface, however it was Ross Graham who had the first shot of note firing over the bar from 25yards out. The Newburgh keeper was finding the conditions difficult and his handling suffered as a result although Airdrie never really benefited from the slips.
Airdrie seemed to be winning the midfield battle with Smith and Edgar having lots of the ball and Newburgh restricted to hitting on the counter attack. From one such attack Hendrie had to look lively as he got a strong hand to a decent shot on goal to turn the ball away to safety. Airdrie almost gifted the visitors the lead when Stewart played a passback between Burton and Hendrie which allowed the striker to intercept however Airdrie recovered the situation before Newburgh could get a clean strike on goal. At the other end Stewart and Neil Pardoe worked a good opening and when the ball broke in the box Smith nipped in ahead of the Newburgh defence and had his legs taken from under him by Newburgh's #5 a stonewaller which was waved away by the ref, amazingly within seconds of the first penalty claim,as the ball broke in the box from the original challenge, Newburgh's centre half handled the ball as Cooper was about to collect but again the claim was turned down flat. As the ball went out of play Smith remonstrated with the ref and he was left fuming when the ref booked the captain for "diving" a truly awful decision in my view as a fairer player you would be hard pushed to find at this level. To his credit Smith went on to have a magnificent game and didn't let it affect his usual style of play.

The second half looked like shaping up to be similar to the first but just as Airdrie were finding there feet disaster struck, Airdrie had a free kick 10 yards inside the Newburgh half however Ross Graham hit a crossfield ball to Stewart ( who had acres of room all day on the right)but the big man couldn't control and the ball broke to Newburgh who swept forward. With Cooper up in attack for the free kick Burton was left horribly exposed and the pacey front man broke forward, Hendrie came out of his area to close the striker down and succesfully forced the player wide but the man recovered the ball and swung in a cross which went high over Hendrie who had made his way back toward goal and was met at the back post by the other Newburgh forward who had an easy header into the empty net.
Airdrie did have a full 35 mins to get back in the game though and went about it straight away and put Newburgh's back line under pressure throughout the remaining time. Kenny Pardoe was introduced on 60 minutes to liven up the attacking options replacing Khorasani on the left, Airdrie's pressure got rewards with 18 minutes left on the clock when Cooper got his head to a crossball which evaded the Newburgh keeper and crept in at his back post. A fully deserved equaliser and Airdrie were now up for taking the tie at the first time of asking. Clark was immediately sent on for Thompson to find a winner and he almost got it when he found space in the box and fired a goalbound effort which the keeper superbly tipped over the bar. As ever Newburgh were dangerous on the counter and Airdrie were almost undone under similar circumstances to the first goal the frontman got away from Burton, with Cooper up in attack from the previous passage of play,Hendrie again had to come off his line smartly and force the striker wide although the keeper did catch the forward a little but credit to the player who stayed on his feet in an effort to get to the ball which he did and crossed the ball once more but this time Airdrie got back in numbers and Burton was able to clear the danger.

So a hard fought game sees the two sides meet in a replay this coming saturday in Fife, weather permitting, with a place in the fourth round up for grabs. A good team performance after a long lay off with Smith Outstanding in midfield along with Edgar, Ross Graham and Stewart at full backs having excellent games also.

Team

Hendrie
Stewart Cooper Burton R.Graham
N.Pardoe Smith Edgar Khorasani
Gray Thompson
Subs
K.Pardoe for Khorasani(60)
Clark for Thompson (75)
S.Graham (unused) Rowan (unused)