By C.McFarlane
December 5 2005

AS AIRDRIE 2 GREENHILLS DYNAMO 0


airdrie inflicted greenhills first league defeat of the season with a surprising but deserved victory at airdrie sports centre.

injuries to edgar and burton and suspensions to the pardoe,s meant airdrie had a changed side from the one which lost last wk.with airdrie short on players both manager and assistant col were both listed as subs but we stuck to our 3-5-2 system.

on a heavy park airdrie started a lot brighter than normal and were taking the game to greenhills who were very sluggish at the start and struggled to get going most of the first half.after 20 minutes the game had its first talking point when gray burst through and was tripped up when he went round the keeper and was denied a clear goal scoring opportunity.it looked a red card from the touchline but the ref,who had a decent game,deemed it a yellow card.clarky knocked the free kick over the bar but airdrie kept up the pressure with clark and gray in particular giving their defence a hard shift.however greenhills nearly scored with their first opportunity on attack.fine play down the right saw the number 7 fire a dangerous ball across the goal and the number 10 knocked it just over.however airdrie took a deserved lead when a long throw from graham was knocked on from gogs and big mark headered into the bottom corner.airdrie maintained their lead to half time.

airdrie had the best of the first half but the greenhills manager must have had words to his team at half time cause dynamo piled on the pressure for the first 15 minutes of the second half.no goalscoring chances but a couple of corners and plenty of the ball in airdrie,s half didn,t allow airdrie to get out of their own half.but the defence kept their shape and discipline and eventually airdrie worked their way back into the game.nice play from the middle of the park saw the ball played to gray down the right and after going round one defender went past another inside the box and forced him into a rash challenge which gave airdrie an opportunity to take a 2-0 lead.but the resulting penalty from clark was well saved by the keeper and the rebound was cleared.this gave dynamo a lift and they created a couple of chances which johnny saved well and then they nearly got lucky when a deflected shot fell to the striker but as he turned to shoot graham got a vital touch on the ball and the ball was cleared.with 15 minutes left airdrie made their first sub with col on for scotty.with 10 to go airdrie made it 2-0 when a ball through the middle saw the keeper miss the ball altogether as he tried to kick it and gray had the easiest of chances to put the ball into the net.airdrie made their second sub with buckles on for gray who had taken 2 major whacks to the ribs the second one being from a late challenge by the number 5.greenhills pushed men forward but airdrie defended well.airdrie made their last sub with the boss on for a couple of minutes for capoo who had put in a great shift down the left. they should have made it three right at the end when clarky had a great chance but he fired by the post. final score 2-0

what a difference a week makes.second to most balls last wk first to most balls this wk and quicker in the challenges.this result today shows what the boys can achieve when they work hard,play some football but more importantly work for each other.no matter what is said airdrie deserved to win that game.my view will be seen as biased but i only call it as i see it.last week i said greenbank were deserved winners.but the boys can take a lot from that game today especially as we were short 2 or 3 regulars and we were playing a fine team who hadn,t lost a game in regulation all year.on the day greenhills obviously didn,t perform as their form suggested and whether they thought it was going to be easy only they know that.i don,t doubt for a minute they can play better than that and will be challenging at the top all year.for us its another 3 points away from the bottom but that type of performance will be needed the rest of the season.

team

j rowan

g drummond
g cooper
r graham

s graham
r hendrie
m johnstone
s smith (cap)
g capaldi

a gray
a clark

c macfarlane for s graham
g arbuckle for a gray
n brown for g capaldi