AIRDRIE UTD

To say it was a slow start to the game is a definite understatement. Exactly 13 minutes were on the clock before the first real action took place and it was unlucky for Mark Roberts as McVeigh protege, Kevin Gaughan, decided it was time to 'sort him out' in the old fashioned sense. Throughout the half Airdrie wannabe (and no chance ever of playing for us I sincerely hope) Jamie McKenzie (no. 8) would make several attempts at achieving a similar result with Roberts. Maybe he just wanted his shirt for his bedroom wall? If nothing else Airdrie's shape was much better again this week. With Scott Wilson remaining in defence we have much more ability to deal with the physical approach and as a result McManus has improved to the point I think he had his best game for us, certainly this season. We definitely lacked creation from midfield with our most creative player, David Dunn, only making the bench on his return from suspension. Woosh Wilson, like McManus, also had a good game on the right but it was up front we looked particularly dangerous. Varielle was settling into a good game, Roberts was linking well but it was again Gowser who is improving every game. With us going to a three up front Gow and Vareille are getting the neccessary width we were lacking with Gow in particular making several exciting run and crosses down the left.

Airdrie took the lead when Gowser lobbed a ball over the top for Jerome to chase. The Frenchie out paced the defence but instead of dallying and panicing like usual he calmly thrashed the ball home past wee Willie McCulloch from Craigneuk. The only other moments of note in the first half were Jerome's strained hamstring (Glancy replaced him) and Miff's booking, much to our delight.

Second half and there was no let up in the severity of the Stenhousemuir tackling, I'm sure to the delight of their blood thirsty manager. They of course didn't have a shot, or misplaced tackle, at goal in the entire game, but as long as they kept the bodycount high it didn't matter. In fact I'm surprised they let them play the game before the 9pm watershed. Maybe McKenzie has been getting them Halloween props from Safeway to decorate the dressing room to get them in the mood. You know, fake blood, witches costumes, halloween cakes, etc.... Anyway, Dosser, on for the increasingly ineffective Roberts, who'd had a decent first half before he'd been systematically booted from one end of the pitch to the other, finally got us a second goal when Gowser again lifted a beauty of a pass over the Stenny defence that McKeown battled to reach, touched it round McCulloch before calmly striking home to make the game safe. Then of course all Hell erupted when McGowan tried to out pace two Stenny players who tried to sandwich him. McGowan was being trapped as he tried to get up, and had to wriggle free, we had the free kick, but Harty (no. 14) pushed him. Dunn wisely stepped in to remove McGowan before someone got flattened but McKenzie in particular made a lot of noise and the main standside linesman, under undue pressure from the Stenhousemanure bench, decided that McGowan should be automatically red carded. Marvyn Wilson was particularly disgusted with the decision as were the Airdrie bench, and McGowan was at melting point. Funnily enough, minutes earlier McKenzie had niggled McGowan in their box as well. A job well done for him too. I bet he and his boss are well proud of their 'display'. How could the ref send off McGowan for whatever he did and Harty can push him in the chest? One thing I suggest is that Airdrie seriously look at switching dug outs so that eejits like McVeigh are more removed from the assistant refs on that side of the pitch.