AIRDRIE UTD

QOTS

You just knew it was going to be one of those days. It was the game before a cup-tie, we’d never scored at Palmerston as Airdrie United, Queens had only won one game this season – at Palmerston v. us, Docherty was rumoured to be signing for them, and the wee shoe-shitter was still searching for his first win… Did we need any other omens? When Docherty got us off to the opposite of a flyer with a glaring mistake that let in Queens’ rotund little play acting, long blond haired striker – Graham Weir – for a clear run at Robbo, it seemed that the day was going to start bad and get worse. And so it did. Robbo may well have saved his skipper in that first minute attack, but more slack defending would give the irritating striker a chance to ‘win’ a penalty inside the first ten minutes with a niftly click of his heels conned the ref. O’Neill showed no remorse as he sent Robbo the wrong way.

Airdrie couldn’t really blame anyone but themselves, they were hopeless. Time and again McKenna and Hardie would pass the ball to no-one or simply out of the park. Doc and Dunn couldn’t defend to save themselves, I lost count of the number of times that an intended pass for Coyle didn’t reach him. McPhee did have a good chance before half time when he sprung clear of the defence but he wasted the opporchancity in frustrating style.

MacDougall replaced Coyle at half time and McGowan came on for Dunn less than a quarter of an hour later and in fairness Airdrie had a lot of the play. McGowan brought some much needed ability to the defence and Lovering was an easy upgrade on Dunn. But as much as our big bad wolves blew they just couldn’t muster enough wind to blow a hole in the Queens’ rearguard. The result was irrelevant to us if taken in isolation but an injury to Stephen McKenna was much more painful. I don’t know what the diagnosis is until we hear from the club but it looked to me like a brutal revenge attack by Queens’ midfielder Steve Bowey who’d not long appeared as a sub. McKenna had only just been cautioned before he was pole-axed by a malicious tackle that both the ref and his two ‘assistants’ missed.

Sometimes they say that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. McManus and McKeown should walk back into the side next week. Docherty, like Hardie last week, is not a shadow of McManus in the sweeper role, and quite simply there’s no one capable of anchoring our midfield like McKeown. Young Holmes had centre stage but he’s not ready yet to be the lynchpin. And you could just see the difference immediately that McGowan made. It’s been easy to criticise his basic and uncomfortable errors in a lot of games lately but he is infinitely better in central defence than any makeshift efforts. His surprise appearance was not unwelcome and a real boost for next week. McKenna’s injury worry again highlights the need for another central defender at the club, hopefully before the window blows shut again.