By Allstars#9
October 25 2003

A.S Airdrie went into this one in 3rd place in the league with opponents Dunbreac just behind in 5th, the match was played at the San Siro (hoehills parks).....

4-4-2

Johhny Rowan

Gordon Drummond – Colin McFarlane – Stuart Mitchell – Neil Pardoe

Fred Burton – Ross Hendrie – Kenny Pardoe – Ally Gray

James Hamilton – Darran Khorrasani

Subs

Stevie Walker
Neil Brown
Scott Graham
Gary Arbuckle
Stuart Atkin

The game was seconds old when Dunbreac had their first chance which was squandered, the Allstars defence looked far from comfortable in the 4-4-2 formation being used and were under early pressure from Dunbreac for the first 20 mins, at this point Captain Coin McFarlane re-shuffled his defence to the favoured 3-5-2 with wing backs, this proved crucial as the Allstars got back into the match with a bit of dig from the lads especially big Mitch who let their #8 know exactly what he would get if he went over the ball again.

The game by now had evened out with a few wee half chances at either end , the breakthrough came when Kenny Pardoe picked up the ball outside the box and scooped the ball over the Dunbreac defence for the onrushing Ally Gray to burst through and square the ball for Left Wing Back Neil Pardoe to hammer past the keeper and into the net for his first goal of the season.Dunbreac came straight back in to it and a cross from the left wasn’t gathered by Keeper Johnny Rowan and fell kindly for Dunbreac to put it into the back of the net,The game took a twist when Kenny went in hard on Dunbreacs player who reacted badly, after looking to see where the ref was he punched Kenny in the back of the head in front of the A.S bench who rightly screamed for the ref to take some action, the ref however denied any knowledge of seeing the incident and let it go

.After the break Fred Burton was replaced by Stevie walker to add some pace to our left flank with Neil Pardoe switching to the right, a scrappy start to the second half was followed by a brilliant move from Airdrie who broke down the left side , James collected and knocked it inside to Darran who in turn instantly rolled it into Kenny’s path and from 8 yards out hit a screamer which was top corner bound only for Dunbreacs keeper to pull of a stunning save the ball then broke for Ally who guided a header goalwards from a tight angle this time the crossbar rescued Dunbreac and the keeper gathered the loose ball.Another chance fell for Neil Pardoe who had drifted in from the right on the blind side of the defence, the ball found it’s way to Neil’s feet but his touch let him down and the keeper dived to save at his feet.At this point Dunbreac looked well out of it but came back into it and Johnny had to be quick to block an attack at the feet of the forward, from this he picked up a leg injury but after a few minutes he recovered though he was still feeling the affects. A few minutes later Dunbreac hit the front when they broke through the Allstars defence and with Johnny unable to get out to close down their player he slottedthe ball in to the bottom corner, and which Dunbreac player scored?? You got it-the one who should have been red carded.Dunbreac had a chance to extend the lead when Kenny fouled their man in the box , The penalty taker fancied his chances but looked a right tube when his attemted “chip” cleared the bar , coach Humo threw on Scotty”zizou” Graham for the last 15 mins to freshen up midfield replacing Ally Gray and With 5 mins to go put on Neily for James, to no avail though as the game fizzled out and the first defeat of the season had come

M.O.M – Stuart Mitchell