By Guest reporter, Hugh (shug) Morrison
March 13 2004

All the best strikers in our circle of teams are a despised lot. Our own Owen Coyle (affectionate tense btw), Gerry Britton, Jim Grady are not liked but all have the knack of hammering in 20 odd a season while winding us all up. Saturday was the turn of another of that infamous club....

Today saw the visit of Brechin City to New Broomfield for the first time this season. I hope it's the fekin last time as well, because they absolutely humped us!!!! I can usually name an Airdrie Man of the Match quite easily, as there are usually a few contenders. This week, I'm ashamed to say, that there were no players in our team worthy of that accolade. Brechins first came from a break upfield when it looked as if Airdrie were well in control, but as is becoming quite the norm these days, our defence were caught in a fankle, and couldn't handle big Chris Templeman, and he made a fine job of the finish. I must say the alarm bells started ringing then, especially when Brechin created another few chances without actually cashing in. After we got the equaliser, a superb strike by Alan Gow, who had been quite quiet up until that point, I felt we would go on and finish the game off, but what came after that, is the stuff nightmares are made of. Sloppy defending cost us goal number two, scored by Roddy Grant, and then Paul Armstrong contrived to pass the ball back to the Brechin goalkeeper, when we had a penalty, surely the worst penalty we'll see this season!!

Robert Dalzell's photo gallery of the game. Remember Bob's photos are copyrighted.

So into the interval we go one goal down, but full of optimism for the second half. If however we thought the first half was bad, then the second was ten times worse. Rarely have I seen a refereeing display as poor as that I witnessed today. You could almost call it cheating!!!! To start things off he contrived to send off Mark McGeown for a challenge at least a yard outside the box, but to compound his mistake, he awarded a penalty to Brechin, which more or less finished the game as a contest. Once again it was Roddy Grant who scored from the spot, although our young sub goalkeeper was a bit unlucky not to save it. Then came the only bright spot in the whole afternoons viewing, when that man Roddy Grant fired an unstoppable 35 yard shot past the helpless keeper!! No doubt this strike will be up there for goal of the season come May. Grant received some stick as he was substituted late on, which was understandable when you consider he had just scored a hat-trick, but he was undoubtedly the Man of the Match. Brechin had a man sent off late on for allegedly diving, but only the referee and linesman could possibly have seen it, I don't think anyone else saw a dive!!

With about 5 minutes remaining, Airdrie scored number two, with a fine goal by Glancy, after some good lead up work by Niel McGowan. All in all, this will give Sandy some food for thought, especially at the back, where no one played to their potential, and he cannot be confident going in to Tuesdays cup match at Kilmarnock. It certainly looks bleak from where I'm sitting!!!!!

TEAMS

Airdrie (352):

McGeown
Brannigan, Stewart, McGowan
W.Wilson Gardner Harvey Docherty Armstrong
Vareille Gow

Subs: Glancy for Gardner after 20 mins, presumably for an injury, a move which saw Glancy go up front, Gow drop into left midfield and Doc move to right midfield. McGuire replaced Harvey after an hour, we went to four four two with McGuire on the left wing and Armstrong going to right full back, but a minute later McGeown was sent off and Cherrie made his debut at the expense of Vareille.

Brechin: Hay, McCulloch, Black, Jamie Smith, Cairney, Skinner, Charlie King, Jackson, Grant, Templeman, Clark. Subs: Miller, Riley, Donnachie, Gibson, Cairns.

PLAYER RATINGS
McGeown Was playing alright but got sent off needlessly 3/10
Brannigan The Brannigan revival came well and truly off the tracks. Hopeless display. 2/10
Stewart He'll be the first to admit he played a howler. 4/10
McGowan Can be absolved of a lot of blame as he was again solid in defence. 6/10
Willie Wilson He tried but looked a D2 player. Limited distribution skills. 5/10
Gardner Looked unfit and was subbed early. I can't recall him touching the ball. 1/10
Harvey Another mix of fluent passing and careless passing. Needs to be more consistent (good consistency),IMO playing too deep. 4/10
Docherty A bit subdued. As captain I'd have liked to see him gee up his comrades more. 5/10
Armstrong Despite that dreadful penalty he played well. His miss did seriously affect the outcome though. 5/10
Vareille Quiet opener but will have benefitted from having the match. Best to come. 5/10
Gow Fantastic goal and reasonably good display. He and Glancy were our best performers 7/10
Glancy Came on after only 20mins. Worked tirelessly all day. Like Harvey he wastes a lot of good balls by overhitting the killer pass. Otherwise he'd be at a better level 7/10
McGuire Never got into the game 5/10
Cherrie First touch is to pick ball out of empty net and then gets beat from 35 yards. Welcome to the real world Peter. He did have an incredible diving save later on. Not a comfortable with the ball at feet as McGeown but the kid wasn't to blame for our defeat by any means. 3/10

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