Diamonds are Forever
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Posts posted by Diamonds are Forever
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1 hour ago, Mr November said:
Yeah, when Diack came on and again when Ngwenya came on I just assumed it would be a change of shape to be a bit more compact and double up on Nouble and Brandon.
Stanway was fine at Airdrie last season when he played but I have been surprised at him becoming a regular starter in a better team. I suppose a lot of it is not really having a proper Docherty replacement? No harm to him but I knew Thistle were done when Stanway was taking the set-pieces.
Yeah I've thought the same regarding Stanway. I liked him, he was a decent player and he seemed to have a great attitude and enthusiasm. He's also the best diver I've seen at Airdrie since Paul Lovering, I think he won 3 penalties in half a season from the bench. But quality wise I'd never have thought he was ready to go straight in and start in a promotion hunting/title challenging side. He couldn't get a start for a League 1 side last year.
I guess he's the type of player that if he's surrounded by enough quality could do the job of the more destructive player, but it doesn't really seem like that at Thistle.
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1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:
Is there though?
Mehmet and Little - not sure they are Championship quality.
Breen, Fagan-Walcott, Benjamin - not sure they are Championship quality.
Allan, Chalmers - not sure they are Championship quality.
McCann, Wighton - jury out but the foreman is about to knock on the judge's door with a verdict.
That really only leaves Benedictus, Otoo, Hamilton, Comrie, Edwards, Todd, Moffat, Summers, O'Halloran and Jakubiak who look like they might have the required quality, and of those Benedictus and Todd could be out til God knows when, Moffat and Summers have talent but have zero physicality and O'Halloran and Jakubiak can offer something going forward but aren't going to score many goals.
We can't keep clean sheets and we don't score enough goals. Not a good recipe.
The thing about 'Championship quality' is that it largely depends on who the manager is and whether he can get the best out of them.
Depending how you define our best 11, at least 9, arguably 10, of our best 11 made up the side that finished 21 points behind you last season, conceded 30 more goals and drew 2 and lost 2 against you. Plus 1 of the players that we signed who has added to the team was sitting on your bench for most of last season and was released having presumably been deemed not Championship quality. I'd have said the majority of our squad wasn't Championship standard during the summer but they've more than held their own, mainly due to good management.
Despite recent form I still think there will be twists and turns and we're certainly not out of it either so I'm not saying that we're anything special. But if I was on the Dunfermline board I'd be asking how a side that finished that far behind you, who still have basically the same team, have made up such ground.
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10 hours ago, Mr November said:
Definitely options yeah. Gavin Gallagher is another, different kind of player to McStravick but he’d work hard and get around the park. I’d be reluctant to change a settled defence too and while I’d like McCabe in midfield, having someone like McMaster to keep things calm and recycle the ball might be ideal in a game where we might not control possession as much as we’re used to.
If we put McCabe back in midfield I think we'd have to change system a bit and go with 2 sitters. Neither McCabe or McMaster can really play the role that McStravick plays so one would need to drop out if we keep the same system. Would mean going back to 4231, which then reveals the problem of our lack of wide players again.
Against a better side it might be worth it, however I think we'll struggle to score anyway so going even more defensive in midfield will just make it less likely. I've barely seen Lyall so it's hard to say with certainty it's what I'd do but on paper a straight swap with him for McStravick would be my pick.
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4 hours ago, AJ77 said:
Airdrie fans complaining? Nahhhhh
My favourite complaint this week was some geezer making his point known that he won't be attending the cup final against TNS because B teams were in the tournament, don't agree with the b teams in it but not going to your teams first cup final in 16 years because of that really petty.
Can I also add to the ridiculous complaints:
Fans saying it's disgraceful that they have to sit about 15 seats to the side of where they normally sit due to the middle section being for hospitality. What a hardship indeed...
Fans commenting about 'glory hunters' turning up for the big games.
And my favourite, complaining that there will be 'No parking' cones on the surrounding streets meaning they'll either have to walk a bit further or get the bus/train.
That's not to mention complaints about tickets prices, the venue for the Challenge Cup Final and numerous other bizarre things.
We've been hopeless for years playing in front of tiny crowds, now we have a decent side, fans returning, playing big sides in the cup and have reached a cup final and yet 5 mins of looking online and you'd think there is a sizable portion of fans who'd prefer to go back to the days of playing in front of 700 fans and losing to Albion Rovers just so they could sit in their own seat and not be inconvenienced by any of the things that come with being a reasonably succesful football club.
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20 minutes ago, 54_and_counting said:
No one said its okay, the majority said its a definte yellow
Thats the point of contact, where is he high, out of control etc, he's literally stood on the players toe when trying to stop
I'm not really sure showing a screenshot of Sterling diving in, looking away with his eyes closed is really the best way to claim he was 'in control'...
If he had control why is he sliding in with huge speed when the ball is already long gone? I'd say he's out of control and it was down to luck not judgement that there was no injury.
There's more than enough there to justify a red card.
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6 hours ago, Diamonds_Are_Forever said:
Airdries sold over 3thousand already
Not sure where that is from but we clearly haven't going by the tickets still on sale. The middle section is for hospitality and the end section isn't for sale, so if we'd sold 3000 we'd be virtually sold out given the stand holds 3700. Not going to count up the available seats but looks to me about 2000.
I think we'll sell about 3000 by Sunday but we haven't yet.
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9 minutes ago, Arachnophile said:
Aidrie fan criticises legoification of stadia...
It's almost as if, rather than criticising, they were speaking from experience of watching our ground being turned into a Lego stadium and pointing out how rubbish that would be...
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I've said this on the Airdrie thread but I think our position is slightly misleading at the moment as we've played 3 more home games than away, and there has been a huge disparity between our home and away form - 2nd place in home form but 10th in away, in reality I'd say we are the equivalent of 2 or 3 points worse off if all things were equal. 9 of our remaining 15 games are away so unless we improve on that we could be in bother.
That said, we've won our last 2 away games in all competitions against Raith and QP which suggests we may have turned a corner slightly. Plus with the exception of Arbroath away all the away defeats have been very close games, it's not as if we were miles away from getting results. We also have 1 or 2 games in hand and pretty reliable home form, so as long as we improve our away form to a half decent level we should be fine.
I think it will be very close for 4 or 5 teams though and be a pretty high safety bar in terms of points total.
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3 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:
It was literally the first paragraph in the post you queried!
The key driver will be to maximise attendance whilst both hosting in Scotland and not physically playing on one of the finalist's own ground. If they host it in Aberdeen, Stranraer or Edinburgh, the same number of TNS fans will likely turn up as they're making a weekend of it come what may. The incentive will be to make it as easy as possible for Airdrie fans to get there. To be honest, if it was down to me, and if TNS were agreeable, I'd play it AT Airdrie. They won't though.
I was thinking this. Normally I'd hate the idea as it would feel a bit weird, the whole thing of a cup final is that it's a 'day out' and a neutral venue. But it will be a weird atmosphere for a cup final anyway given the number of TNS fans that will be there, it won't really be neutral given the location of the two clubs wherever it's played, and if the whole aim of picking this venue is to increase attendance of Airdrie fans and neutrals then the best venue is at Airdrie for both those. The semi-finals aren't neutral either so it's hardly some major leap to not have the final at a home ground given the circumstances.
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2 hours ago, Passionate said:
It's working for Rhys and us at the moment, he has total control over everything, PH just leaves him to it apparently and Rhys gets what he wants within reason, he goes to other 'bigger' clubs, would they be willing to give him total control, I don't think so, I personally think he will be here for the foreseeable future, Football changes quickly, pressure will be on him for the Hearts game, from the media and the armchair curiosity fans, we need a good show next week and more importantly follow it with 3 points against Ayr the following week.
If you really want a long career in management then there's also a lot to be said for actually taking a few years at a lower level to gain experience and learn how to deal with adversity, rather than jumping straight up the leagues at the first offer and then having no experience to fall back on when things go wrong. It's why the majority of these youth coaches who stand-in for a few games and then get the job - MacLean, Robson, Hammell - get sacked a few months later, they've no experience of how to turn results around or deal with players who aren't happy. Clubs will be more willing to give you time if you have a CV which shows you can come through a bad run of form.
Of course in reality if you are offered a fortune to move on then hardly anyone can say no, plus you also know that football can turn quickly and if you don't move when you are flavour of the month you may miss the boat. It would take a lot of self-belief from the manager to stay at a club like Airdrie if a bigger one came along. At the moment I think the only 'threat' is a bigger Championship club. There would be no point moving to a club around us in the league at the moment, a lower Premiership club would mean retiring and isn't that inviting anyway, and I don't think a Hearts or Aberdeen size club would take him yet. I could definitely see a Partick or Raith wanting him and he could still play a bit, but thankfully those clubs don't look like sacking the manager any time soon. Provided we stay up this year and give him a competitive budget next year I think he'll be here for another year.
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About 20 minutes into the game last night I was confident we'd win because Easton was already starting to drop deep into his own half to get the ball. Whenever he did that for Airdrie he was totally ineffective, he doesn't have the attributes to drop deep and dictate play and get around the park. He's brilliant within 30 yards of the opposition goal in tight spaces but anywhere else on the pitch he slows things down, doesn't have the range of passing and he removes himself from the area where he is actually a threat. Raith's lack of a proper midfield base meant he kept going back to get the ball when really he should be staying higher and the ball getting played through to him. I watched Murray's interview on Open Goal and he said that sometimes you just need to let players like him go where they want, that might be true within the attacking third but just letting him roam round the pitch isn't going to get the best from him.
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Watching the goal again the defending, or lack of, from the number 5 is incredible. Retreats to stand in front of his goalie to block his view, then walks about flat footed completely oblivious that a 6 foot 5 striker is standing in 5 yards of space to his left. His body language would make you think the ball was at the other end of the pitch, not bouncing around the box.
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3 minutes ago, Aufc said:
I would argue the other teams in the league are gambling and looking desperate by the number of signings. Whereas airdrie are pretty comfortable with our squad. There is a real togetherness and we now have players coming back from injury. Another wee loan signing might be in order. Reality is 8th is still the ultimate aim to help us build for next season
No doubt they are gambling and desperate but some of those gambles will likely pay off. I'm not too concerned but our aim is still to avoid relegation for the time being. The proportion of our remaining games that are away is probably the thing that worries me a bit but last night's result goes some way to convincing me that we can turn our home form into away wins.
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I thought the half-time piece on the TV was really interesting and backs up what we've observed with McCabe. He came into the job with your typical 'philosophy' chat that all young managers have, and I remember his interview after being hammered 6-0 by Edinburgh when he was stubborn and seemed to refuse to accept that there was another side of the game that was just as important as the attractive football part. We then went on that really poor run contuining to lose stupid goals and something obviously clicked eventually that we had to be more adaptable and solid at the back. All the big scorelines got the headlines after that but it was games like beating Alloa 1-0 away and beating Falkirk and Accies 1-0 in play-off ties that showed how much we'd improved defensively. It was that which got us into the play-offs and promoted. We currently have the 2nd best defence in the league and have just conceded 1 goal in 5 games to Raith twice, ICT, St Johnstone and Partick which was unimaginable a year ago. All that while still trying to play an attractive style of football where possible and with pretty limited options in attacking areas.
Young managers with 'philosophies' appear all the time but virtually none of them last because they don't accept that you can't always play like that, and that you have to be able to be a strong defensive unit too. I think what gives McCabe a real chance in the game is that he clearly has come to realise this. Things could have turned out differently if he'd kept being stubborn after that Edinburgh game but he began to mix his idealism with realism and it's been great to see him evolve over the last season.
I still think our league position isn't as comfortable as it suggests, we have a lot of away games and it seems virtually everyone below us is making changes/improvements apart from Arbroath. If we can keep this run going for a few more games we should be fine, in some respects a quiet 7th place finish may be better than making a late burst for the play-offs and finishing 4th because it means he'll be here next season!
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24 minutes ago, Mr November said:
Hoping for a TNS win tomorrow purely on the basis that I do not want to read an Airdrie v Falkirk cup final thread.
As dreadful as that would be, it would be a shame if we get to a final and then it has the atmosphere of a League 1 game against Montrose.
A final against Falkirk would be a big crowd (as I'm sure they'd tell us...) and another good payday.
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1 hour ago, TheScarf said:
I just think teams have sussed you out. I don't think there's anything other than that.
I think that's part of it. But I also don't think they were as good as results appeared early on. In the opening game of the season they were 2 goals down with 7 minutes to go. Twice against QP (who have generally been poor) they've scored twice in the last few minutes to grab wins from defeats. There was the ICT turnaround too and a few other late goals to grab points like Ayr and Arbroath, when by all accounts they weren't very good.
I know a goal is a goal regardless of what time it's scored and it shows good character etc etc, but the reality is it would not have taken a huge change in events for Raith to have been sitting quite a lot of points worse off before their recent poor run. Numerous late turnarounds of that nature weren't going to last forever and in fairness anytime I looked on here a lot more Raith fans were saying that. The best stat to show that is that Raith have won 13 games, every one of them by a 1 goal margin. That doesn't suggest to me they were playing great and then collapsed, it suggests that they were doing enough thanks to individual brilliance and that now that's dried up.
My opinion of Raith is probably a bit skewed because against us so far they've been poor. I feel like in lots of areas of the pitch they are an average Championship side, but in Easton and Vaughan have a couple of players who can win matches on their own so when they are on form they'll get results. But as you say teams are obviously now finding ways to keep those players quiet which is affecting results. I've probably said a few times on here that Murray's biggest weakness was tactics, it's generally Plan A, or Plan B which is chuck every attacker on the pitch and see what happens.
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On 28/01/2024 at 09:59, Zanetti said:
In the last 5 full Championship seasons the 8th placed team has finished on 34, 39, 39, 47, and 39 points. With how the table currently looks I think 40ish would hopefully be enough. Are we capable of taking 20+ points from a possible remaining 45? I personally don't think so.
The next few days are going to be very interesting. The club simply has to give Davidson the resources to bring in both a striker and a centre half of a decent standard or we will without a shadow of a doubt be playing League One football next season.
In fairness you've made that sound worse than it is. For example in 2018 Falkirk finished 8th on 47 points, but they were 17 points ahead of 9th. The actual 8th place total is irrelevant, what's relevant is the minimum points total that was required to finish 8th. Which was 32, 36, 39, 31 and 39. So 35 on average.
That said, I don't disagree with your estimate of 40 points being the safety line, if not higher. You can make a case for virtually every side from 4th to 9th having a decent end to the season, whether that's through current form like Morton or Airdrie, new managers/signings like ICT, Ayr and even QP, and then players returning from injury like Dunfermline. If Arbroath tail off that will also put the total up as teams will be getting 4 or 6 'easy' points.
To pluck a number out the air I'd go 42 points will be needed.
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31 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:
Our defensive line, which has been superb recently wasn't great but was Watson too deep or McCabe too high? Hancock's positioning was my first thought but perhaps the highlights might clarify. I do however concur that not running back is not what fans want to see.
Who was at fault for the defensive line is a separate issue I'd argue. If Watson was as far behind as the linesman's (who should be in line with the deepest defender) positioning suggests then it's Watson at fault for that part. But regardless McCabe clearly didn't realise how deep Watson was, he just saw Lawless ahead of Hancock and assumed offside. You can't just stand with your arm up when you can't see across the whole line. And even if you can you should still be chasing back given the standard of officials.
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49 minutes ago, Mr November said:
This is definitely true but I’m intrigued to see how we get on away from home now that our style is a bit more direct and we’re more keen on crossing. Obviously a lot of our goals have been set-pieces recently, which is great but we do still need to start scoring from open play more often, and there is still that doubt of what do we do when we concede first.
Looking at the away games so far, Arbroath was the only major disaster, though the two goals at the end and the manner of them perhaps make that one seem worse. The first half at Raith was one of our best performances this season, while the second half at Queen’s Park was great and we did fine at Morton. Dunfermline away was ok in spells but everything else has been lots of sideways possession after conceding an early goal without actually doing much (Dundee United, Inverness, Ayr, Partick Thistle). I suppose it all comes back to getting the first goal, which seems to be very important for this team.
In the Arbroath game we scored a perfectly good goal at 0-0 which was disallowed which would have totally changed the game, that doesn't excuse losing 4 goals afterwards but it was still unlucky and given how we perform when we score first I think we'd have got something from it.
It's still another month until an away league game (depending on rearranged games) so hopefully we have more players back then too. We do seem a bit more solid and streetwise at the moment so hopefully that changes our fortunes a bit away from home.
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McCabe has generally been great at centre-back but every now and then you see that isn't his natural position. Standing with his hand up for offside and not bothering to run back because he's so confident it's offside, when he has no idea that Watson is behind him playing everyone onside, is schoolboy stuff. Even if you're certain it's offside you have to go back with the man, he would have been in a position to win the rebound if he'd tracked back.
On the game it's probably a decent point. Partick will finish 2nd at worst I think so it's an encouraging performance to go toe to toe against them. As I said in the other thread, it's clear that at home we'll give everyone a game, it's how many points we can start taking away from home which will decide how high up the league we finish.
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Been a very enjoyable few weeks playing some good sides at home and getting good results against all of them. It's clear that at home we are a match for anyone.
Looking ahead, the next challenge for this team is to improve our away form. We are 2nd in the league on home form, but 10th on away form. We only have 6 home games left compared to 9 away and our next league game is also a home game to Ayr - so 9 of our last 14 games are away from home. Therefore it's going to be a long slog to May if we don't improve on our away form, which so far has been dreadful. I'm confident that we'll continue to win or draw our home games which alone should be enough to avoid 9th or 10th. But if we want to look any higher we'll need to start beating teams around us away from home.
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5 minutes ago, GuyIncognito said:
Transfers Scotland (who is kind of hit or miss on reliability) says that every Championship club except Dundee United is interested in Zak Rudden.
If we could get him in and send Bryden out on loan for regular game time that would be a great bit of business.
Not that it affects your point really, but Transfers Scotland's 'source' for that will have been skimming every club thread on here and seeing fans post about him being a potential signing. I wouldn't pay much attention to that.
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54 minutes ago, Mr November said:
I think pretty much all of those were caretakers and got the job out of good runs (Robson), being the easy option or both, weren’t they? As you say that shouldn’t make them better qualified than someone with a short but successful CV but that’s the way it seems to work.
I think there’s a couple of things with McCabe that clubs might question, rightly or wrongly. Will a bigger club want to take a risk on appointing a 31 year old manager who beyond the first few years of his career hasn’t actually played much above Scottish Championship level. This is more on McCabe’s (and Fordyce’s I suppose) end but when will they be ready to give up playing? McCabe knows when to take himself out the team but he’s currently playing a vital role in the team and Fordyce just loves defending and I can’t imagine he’s keen to stop playing anytime soon.
Clubs will certainly have their eye on him but I do find it hard to tell when they’ll move on. It’s quite a unique situation these days, not much we can use as a comparison.
Realistically neither of McCabe and Fordyce would keep playing if they moved to a Premiership club, so an upward move out the league means retirement. As you say I can't see them doing that yet, therefore a move to another Championship club would be the only option for them if they wanted to keep playing whilst managing. I can't see Goodwin, Doolan or Murray being sacked anytime soon and moving to anyone else would be idiotic at this point.
I think the best case scenario for both parties is that we consolidate in the league this year, and then manage to push on next year and challenge for play-offs (I know we are currently 4th but we aren't that many points off the bottom and I think everyone's priority is to stay in the league). I think 3 years of steady progression with limited resources would see him get some decent job offers in the Premiership or down south and he'd move on. By that time he'd be almost 33 and nearing retirement anyway. That's assuming that this season and next keeps going well which you never know, although ironically the best chance of him staying for a while is probably if results take a turn for the worse.
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15 minutes ago, Passionate said:
Rhys is doing and has done a fantastic job, I just don't think the bigger clubs would take a risk on someone doing something completely different, they are too set on their ways of survival and negativity, look at St Johnstone a poor negative side who could easily finish 7th in the top league this season..
Hopefully he is here for a few more years , enjoy this time being an Airdrie fan, look at the next 3 games, Partick at home, a televised Semi final at Raith and a possibly televised Scottish Cup 5th round tie at home to Hearts, it sure beats Clyde, Peterhead and Montrose respectively..
I get what you're saying but this is the same St Johnstone who appointed Steven MacLean who had precisely zero management experience at first team level. Same with Robson at Aberdeen, with Naismith at Hearts, Hammell at Motherwell, and that's just the last 2 years. Numerous more guys who have been given jobs with no criteria other than 'played for the club' and some vague 'highly thought of' nonsense due to taking a youth team. Or being the beneficiary of a new manager bounce when standing in for a few games.
If all of the above can get those jobs it's bizarre that someone who has actually got a CV (albeit quite short) with some achievements on it is seen as a risk.
That said, I don't disagree with you that that is how clubs would view it, but it just seems weird to me.
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Airdrie v Hearts
in Domestic Cup Football
Posted
You're correct, with the exception of Arbroath away this season we are well in every game we play but we do lack quality in attacking areas. The vast majority of our games are a single goal win or defeat as we don't lose many but don't score many either.
I think it will be a good game overall but hard not to see Hearts winning with Shankland up front.