Tulloch Gorum

At this level unless one team is totally outplaying the other and has the freedom to play really good football, you seldom see "good" football matches in the conventional sense (oh so bourgois!). And that doesn't often happen, unless it's a good full-time team against a bad part-time one. Most games are scrappy and bitty, because if they players were capable of a lot more than that they wouldn't be playing for Airdrie, Falkirk, Peterhead etc. But you can still get entertaining games that are, as our backwards-talking denizen of the Black Lodge says, really absorbing. That's what we had on Saturday, for my £0.02.

People who scream about it being "only" a civil court conviction are exactly the same kind of wrong'uns as those weird American libertarians who jump around on Twitter insisting that, actually, there is technically a difference between paedophilia (wrong, bad, beyond the pale, of course) and ephebophilia (different! totally fine!). Football has taken to patting itself on the back a bit recently about how good it is on things like homophobia and mental health, but as long as people are totally willing to defend rapists and accuse their victims of lying solely because a man is good at football, the sport has a long, long way to go in terms of social responsibility. Nobody would get so het up about how good a postie someone was if that postie had been convicted of rape in a civil court. When a minister or a priest gets found out for being an abuser, we don't say "Ah, but his sermons are brilliant!" And we certainly wouldn't say that if it had been us, or our sister, or our friend, or our cousin that had been abused. Football should be no different.

I was talking to a Clyde fan not long ago, who has stopped going to their games and won't be back until Goodwillie goes. He is of the opinon that while he deserves a second chance, there's no reason why it has to be a second chance at a prestigous job like being a professional footballer (even at this diddy level) and there's no reason his club have to be the ones to give it to him.

Some utterly cringey hard-man patter on here, btw. As to the game, it was certainly entertaining, and both teams will feel they had chances to win it, even without either goalkeeper really having a great deal to do. We certainly benefited from having Roberts back in the team, he really does make a big difference. I wasn't at the 0-0 game in Airdrie earlier this season, but I thought that over the piece we maybe played better than we did when we won in Falkirk - the three points and the drama of the late winner glossed over how shaky we were until our first goal in that game, I thought. Kieran Millar MOTM for me.

There's no question that he's a good striker at this level, but he's not someone I would want at the club. Not worth it for the baggage he brings.

"Provincial club" has always seemed odd to me in a Scottish context. Does anyone know what or where the provinces of Scotland are meant to be?

He's not been worthy of a start, but he's not even the worst Airdrie player in the last decade. Not even close. Not good enough to be a regular player for a team that wants to go up, and I'd be happy to see him go and free up a place for someone else, but let's not get hysterical. Letting a couple of players go, plus money from the Hearts game, ought to see us able to strengthen the squad.

I hear Peterheid's infamous Innsmouth Casuals are going to be there.

In cricket the captain will often have a role in selection, but more importantly they make the most important on-field decisions as well, such as which bowlers to use and when, how to arrange the fielders, decisions about whether to declare the innings when batting, whether to bat or bowl first if they win the toss, changes to the batting order, and if and when to call for video reviews of the umpires' decisions. They have a much, much more hands-on role than football captains do, who basically are really just there to provide "leadership" in some vague way.

It was 910, according to the report on the official site. Anyone got an estimate for how many EF brought? Seemed a decent number, but I couldn't see them all that well,

Airdrie were clearly the better side today, and I don't think the scoreline flatters us in the least. The back line was solid, and I don't think Hutton had a great deal to do - a few shots that you'd expect any keeper to deal with easily enough and that was about it. I don't think we we were really in much danger, and EF never looked like having much up their sleeves to change the way the game was going. Our attacking play was really good. I must say I did think the penalty decision was right at the time. We'll see when we get the highlights up, but by that point another Airdrie goal had certainly been coming, and the fact that the third goal (great hit) followed so soon from the second really finished the game as a contest. Carrick MOTM for me, though Crighton and Fordyce were excellent at the back. Smith was a bit unfortunate, it just never seemed to work for him when he got himself into good positions, but he did well keeping going after losing the ball just before the fourth goal.

Rather good, this place. A fellow could get used to it.

I suspect Dale Carrick will be rubbing his hands with glee this evening.

Mon eh *checks notes* Clyde.

That's the one.

Should say - credit to the Rovers' keeper for a fantastic save from a header in the second half. I was pretty much right behind the goal and had a good view of it, it was a brilliant save.

I don't think the scoreline flattered us at all. Sure, two of the goals were late, but we've been scoring a lot of late goals recently and having a fitter team of better players should usually tell eventually. 8 shots on target vs 2 for the Rovers, a 50% score rate for each... seems about right. Smith was MOTM for me. We really woke up after the equaliser. That seemed to sting us into action a bit. I did enjoy the fact that they'd put up a line of barriers in an utterly useless effort to stop fans getting on the pitch. They should try a moat next time.

Even though we lost that game against Motherwell it's still one of my favourite experiences as an Airdrie fan purely because of the atmosphere. If memory serves we were absolutely hammering them in the last fifteen minutes or so looking for a goal, and the noise was incredible. It's the only time I've ever seen us play Motherwell (their youth team in the Challenge Cup doesn't count). I'd take that but with a win in the next round, please.

Tomorrow, I think.

The sweating thing seems a bit far-fetched to me, but then the only reason anyone has heard of the guy in the first place is that he has some kind of magical mystical medieval blood that makes him better than you so who knows how the hell his body works?

Oh you should, the last wee bit is brilliant.

Not unlike McKinnon grumbling about the long throws. Teams generally try to do what works to get the result they want. If you can't stop them doing that, that's on you. It reminds me of the apocryphal story of Hannibal sending a messenger to Fabius, who was pursuing a guerilla strategy and hiding in the mountains, saying "If you were a man you would come out and fight in the open." Fabius supposedly sent a message back saying "If were a general you could make me."

Campbell won this league at a relative canter last year, and now has his part-time team outside the promotion playoff spots only on goal difference (one behind Inverness). Campbell would be a fantastic appointment, but I don't see him leaving Arbroath. ETA: I wouldn't expect them to finish the season as high as they are now, but there's no denying he's done a brilliant job there. Really knows how to get the most out of a team.

It was striking how much Airdrie were going for the win. I don't think anyone would deny that going to Falkirk and getting a point would be a creditable result, but going into the final stages we didn't run the clock down, we didn't bring on subs to shore up the defence, and at the free kick we had at the end and then the throw-in that led to the goal we had, I think, every man bar Hutton in the Falkirk half. That shows a confidence we were sorely lacking only a month ago.