AIRDRIE UTD

Gretna

Airdrie had displayed good form lately despite results not going their way and there was a real feeling that we had to go into the lion's den and perform beyond expectations. The bookies had us at 9/1 and who could argue on statistical evidence? You'd never have guessed though which side was which if you'd been an uninformed neutral. Airdrie attacked the hosts with much gusto throughout the game as if their whole existence depended on the win. Early on McPhee and MacDougall made much of the headway down the right against the 'Woosh Wilson lookalike' wing back Skelton. Airdrie's 442 system depended on the X-Man and MacDougall to pin the Gretna wingbacks back and they didn't disappoint. MacDougall is maturing nicely and you can't fault the impact that Xavier is making on the left wing. His early displays remind me a lot of the days almost 20 years ago when we had Innes MacDonald patrolling the left flank.

Airdrie's best early chance was a 25 yard drive from impressive Holmes that banged off the Gretna crossbar. But the Diamonds weren't to be denied this week. A Barrau nearpost corner just before half-time seemed to be knocked into the Gretna net by one of their own players under severe pressure from McKenna and Twigg (Twigg seems to be getting the credit) to give the Diamonds a half-time lead that was richly deserved, though it took a fine save from Robbo at 0-0 to keep us in it as McMenamin raced clear.

Airdrie doubled the lead only a few minutes into the second half when a Barrau freekick from the left pinballed into the net and again Twigg was credited with it. Gretna tried to get back into the game but were outclassed by the division's bottom dwellars well marshalled by Smyth and Taylor. Robertson had to look smart to preserve his first clean sheet of the season before Holmes had another glorious chance on a counter when he fed MacDougall out wide then raced into the box to get on the end of the winger's cross, only for Main to show his class with a fantastic full length save.

A great day for Airdrie and a relief, no doubt, for Sandy Stewart and Jim Ballantyne after weeks of negative press, fan pressure and poor results. But the performance wasn't a one-off, we'd been threatening for weeks to improve and it's happened at last. But this was only one game, it was only three points, we're still only 9th place and need to keep up this level of effort all the way now. The good thing is we look built to last now. We have good defenders at the club, and it looks like the additions of the 'X-Man' Xavier Barrau and Kevin MacDonald has given us the much needed addition of quality that was missing in August and early September. The impressive debut from MacDonald may allow us to keep Taylor organising the defence.