AndyDD

A blow to fans of spills and thrills everywhere. Mindset wise I don't anticipate much change from Airdrie, by the by; at the very least they'll want to see out the remainder of the season unbeaten and take that tally to 20 games. Momentum is important going into the playoffs so, whilst we might take key players off earlier than usual, I don't expect much in the way of changes to the starting 11. I can see us getting a penalty off the clumsy Dumbarton defenders, which will cause some consternation and anxiety after Saturday. Indeed, I don't think we've scored any of our last three penalty kicks.

Target has to be winning the last three games and seeing where that takes us. Finishing the league campaign by completing a 20 game unbeaten run ought to stand us in good stead for the playoffs. We've bounced back well from any bumps in the road thus far so I expect us to get back to winning ways and I don't anticipate any significant drop in intensity despite losing ground last week. The last iteration of this fixture was hilarious and merry bedlam. Are Dumbarton still playing Ramsbottom in goals? He's always entertaining.

I agree with @GoalForAirdrie, we are all as a support now turning our eyes to the playoffs and there's no serious danger of us being caught in 2nd place. Mindset for the manager and squad will likely be pretty straightforward; win the last three games and see where that takes us. At the least, it will finish the season off very strongly and see us go into the playoffs on the back of a 20 game unbeaten run. Part of me actually fancies Alloa to nick something on Saturday versus Cove, but I don't see the leaders dropping any other points outwith that so the penalty miss, galling as it was, likely won't end up counting for much.

To paraphrase the Everly Brothers, all you have to do is dream.

Dunfermline versus Ayr on Saturday, a fixture that will go a long way to determining who ends up in the playoffs. Smart money would be on the Airdrie Versus Montrose semi being a similarly close affair to the semi-final against Cove last season but having home advantage in the second leg will hopefully see us through. Avoid defeat in the first leg and we're well on our way. We were running on fumes by the time the Morton game came along but both Ayr and Dunfermline ought to be favourites in the playoffs, purely on the basis that they're playing a significantly higher standard week in week out. Both have weapons going forward but they'll find Queens Park a stuffy and tricky opponent. They won't be delighted to have yet another match on that firhill pitch, either. Going to be tough, but we're more than capable of it so long as the squad doesn't suffer any major injuries. If we can win the last three and finish the league in style, thus going into the playoffs off the back of a 20 game unbeaten run, we should be full of belief and have considerable momentum. You'd almost rather have the second bottom side right away, given that the'll be at a lower ebb, than in a final after they've had the boost of coming through a semi-final, but ultimately the league table doesn't lie; we're better than Montrose. Won't be easy, but we'll be the favourites to progress.

Airdrieonians 3-0 Dumbarton Clyde 0-2 Montrose Cove 1-2 Alloa Athletic East Fife 1-0 Falkirk Peterhead 1-1 Queen's Park

This is the only game in the run-in I'm not very confident in winning, but the side are on such a great run of form, attacking and defending well and giving everything, so I wouldn't put it past them to go and do it again. Our unbeaten run has been remarkable. Montrose away is usually one of the toughest fixtures on the list and you fancy it'll turn out that way again. Returning to the scene of our last league defeat. Even the 4-1 game was more difficult than the scoreline suggests; compare and contrast the ease of the 1-4 at Falkirk with the 4-1 against Montrose. You fancy we'll need to be as deadly on Saturday as we were in that statement victory in February. At least the weather cannae be worse than the last visit up there, so we should get a better spectacle. Hard to imagine that diabolically bad falkirk side getting anything off Cove (and if they do take the lead you know Cove will get their now obligatory injury time goal. Still chuckling that it was the same bloody minute) so even more important that we find a way to the three points here, as hard as I understand this will be. Pleased that McCabe and Watson are back for it. Presumably they'll slot straight back in. Gutted that I'm going to have to stream it, but hey ho. Hopefully a healthy crowd travels and gets right behind them. Give them a roar on my behalf, folks.

As I said, I like Allan and think he has a place in the squad certainly in this league. He has contributed to the great season we've had and is a decent option. He is indeed sharp over 4/5 yards and he has proven handy in the penalty box, totally agree. Is he the best finisher? No idea to be honest. Very hard to say, but it's entirely possible. Ultimately, though, I wouldn't be playing him ahead of any of our front three all things being equal. Not slagging the guy off in any way, I like him and glad he has been with us this season. It's a squad game.

Yes, overstimated the speed of the centre halves in the league above. You're saying you don't think Fordyce can cut it in that league and have cited his speed as one of the reasons for this. If centre halves in the leagues above are not all, or mostly, faster than him, then this argument doesn't work, because self evidently those centre halves CAN cut it in that league. They are playing in it every week. As for the bolded part; I don't want to particularly criticise Allan, but it was him who looked out of his depth when he started versus Thistle. Gallagher instantly linked things up better when he came on, with some clever touches and clever passes around the box. Granted they were down to 10 men at that stage, but Allan had struggled to make an impact outwith the red card moment. Allan also looked ineffective at home to Falkirk in the 3-2 game. That's Falkirk, who are boggin. The amount of times Gal has scored due to making clever front post runs, timing it to get in front of the near post defender, demonstrates quite clearly his game intelligence and superior awareness. Allan is quicker. Thus far, that seems to be about it. I don't think he has the goals in him that Gal does, nor does he contribute as much overall, and I think if he did he'd have played more. Gal has scored every type of goal this season. He brings so much more to the party than he gets credit for and his status as our leading scorer in the league is but part of his contribution to our excellent form. No point carrying this on; we're clearly seeing entirely different things on the pitch, which is fine. I'm just glad Murray doesn't seem to see it the way you do.

Well obviously. Nobody in this division plays in the championship at the moment. That being said, if Fordyce cannae make the step up to that level, it would mean that there won't be many, if any, centre halves in this league who could. I don't think that argument stands any scrutiny whatsoever. You mentioned you think he's too slow, but I reckon you've both badly underestimated Dycey and more to the point grossly over-estimated the standard and speed of centre halves in the league above. On top of that, I like Jordan Allan, he's a good squad player for this league, but quite how anyone can watch him and watch Gallagher and think the former is more likely to be a useful squad member a division up is beyond me. When it comes to game intelligence alone, front post runs, identifying space to occupy etc, there's just no contest. Goes to show we all see the game differently, to varying degrees. In this case, the differences in degrees are gargantuan.

Fordyce is comfortably one of the best centre halves in the division. Different strokes and all that, but that seems bonkers to me.

Hayes is not Goodwin's player though and must be coming to the end of his career anyway, at 34.

Cove do appear to be limping over the line and looked more ropey against QP than they did even at our place the week before, but no Airdrie fan should be expecting a favour from Falkirk here. They just aren't good enough. Montrose were in poor form and still went there and skudded them silly. If you're on a bad run, a match against Falkirk is just what you're after. A weak side who fold if you get at them, lead by a manager who has no idea how to change a game once it is going against them. Sure, some of the Falkirk players ought to be doing better, but we're coming to the end of the season now. Nobody should be surprised any longer, it is clear what they are; A rank rotten side, beasted off Montrose and comfortably beaten by Peterhead. I'd be delighted, and incredibly grateful, if Cove dropped points here but I just cannae see it. It would be a major upset. Looks for all the world like an away banker. It would be folly for us to be looking to this with any hope of dropped points, even for a Cove Rangers who look like they are desperate for the season to finish. Yes it's football and you never know and 'expect the unexpected' and blah blah blah, but Cove ought to go into this as monumental favourites to win, and win well. PS Please nick something here Falkirk you bonkers b*****ds.

They'll likely loan him to a championship side though and see how he gets on there, knowing he's their player if he does well and continues to progress.

Pleased that the club have taken swift action on three of these idiots, presumably the three from the photo they put out during last week. Hopefully the Police deal with them even further, but good to see the club doing what they can, too. It's the least they could do, of course, but sadly a lot of the time this sort of pathetic conduct goes unpunished in football, so glad to see them laying down a marker. Long may that continue and good on them. On the Rico Quitongo front; the tribunal will determine what more, if anything, the club could have done, what, if anything, they didn't do that they should have done and what lessons, if any, need learned going forward. I imagine any lessons in how this sort of thing can and should be handled will also be studied by other clubs. Could be a test case. The club, going by their statements on the issue, seem confident they exhausted all options available to them and did all they could in this instance. Hopefully this proves to be true. I'd dearly like to think they did all they could. At the very least the club have conducted themselves with dignity and restraint when it comes to their communications on the issue. They haven't issued reams of ranting statements like you see a lot of clubs do. I'm quietly confident it will turn out that the club did their level best, given the people behind the scenes at the club in whom I have a great deal of trust, but I suppose that's for the tribunal to investigate. Saturday was as routine as you like, not something we've been able to say about many other visits to Methill. Could have been more, looked like we had other gears to go up had we lost one back, clean-sheet... aye, that'll do nicely. Saturday coming is the only game in the run-in I'm not very confident in winning, but the side are on such a great run of form, attacking and defending well and giving everything, so I wouldn't put it past them to go and do it again. Montrose away is usually one of the toughest fixtures on the list and you fancy it'll turn out that way again. Even the 4-1 game was more difficult than the scoreline suggests; compare and contrast the ease of the 1-4 at Falkirk with the 4-1 against Montrose. You fancy we'll need to be as deadly on Saturday as we were in that statement victory in February. At least the weather cannae be worse than the last visit up there, so we should get a better spectacle. Hard to imagine that diabolically bad falkirk side getting anything off Cove (and if they do take the lead you know Cove will get their now obligatory injury time goal. Still chuckling that it was the same bloody minute) so even more important that we find a way to the three points here, as hard as I understand this will be. Hopefully McCabe and Watson are back for it. Presumably they'd slot right back in? Gutted that I'm going to have to stream it, but hey ho. Hopefully a healthy crowd travels and gets right behind them. Give them a roar on my behalf, folks.

Alloa Athletic 2-0 Clyde Dumbarton 0-0 Peterhead Falkirk 1-3 Cove Rangers Montrose 0-2 Airdrieonians Queen's Park 1-0 East Fife

On the bolded part, this season not so much. Gallagher, Forydce and Currie are the only ones from last season. Josh Kerr, too, but he has been kept out the starting lineup most of the season. Everyone else was brought in this summer or in January. Callum Smith did play for us in the season curtailed by Covid, mind you, but Murray brought in the majority of this squad in the summer. The rest of your post I agree with. It seems to me that Falkirk supporters (or rather, some falkirk supporters) are wanting Rennie binned not because he finished 2nd and lost out in the playoff final, or finished third with games left to play against the top two in a curtailed season, or even because they are narrowly missing out on playoffs. It seems to me that they are wanting him binned because he has not done better than his predecessor was doing (despite being touted as just the guy for a quick improvement) and because there are no tangible signs of real progress, nor evidence that he is having a positive impact. All evidence would suggest they will miss out on the playoffs comfortably, rather than narrowly, too.

Whilst I can understand why this sort of thing has been mentioned a few times by Falkirk supporters, it's worth keeping in mind that whilst Murray has been in post a few years, it isn't only this year he's had us in the top end of the league. We were tucked in just behind Raith and Falkirk when the season was ended due to Covid and were well on track for the playoffs at least. We finished second last season by 2 points and made the playoff final. This season seems to have been the first he's had no interference from a director when it comes to signings and he created an almost entirely new team in the summer which has us absolutely motoring, but it hasn't taken Ian Murray 4 years to make us a competitive presence at the top end of the division. There is no reason a competent management team and coaching staff could not do the same with Falkirk and have them competing in the top 4 and for the title; even if it takes them multiple years to make them as good as the current Airdrie or cove sides, it doesn't need to take that time to make them a genuine title contender, or at least a top 4 team. It didn't with us. After the last few seasons, I assume 3rd and 2nd place finishes would be viewed as an improvement, even if it didn't ultimately lead to promotion. I see 'it took Murray years to build this Airdrie' but it's not like Airdrie fans had to put up with 5th and 6th place finishes for a number of successive years under Murray before it all clicked this season. Ditto the other two clubs you mention. Cove finished 3rd last season. Montrose finished 4th. Both teams are again in the top 4. Falkirk are looking at another season behind these teams, and well behind them. These teams have not suddenly been successful this season after toiling under the same manager for multiple seasons before. Ian Murray's Airdrie have done better than the season before in every season he has been with us. Keep that in mind when considering how much time to give a manager. There should be clear signs of progress along the way.

Alloa Athletic 2-0 Dumbarton Clyde 0-1 Peterhead East Fife 0-5 Airdrieonians Falkirk 1-2 Montrose Queen's Park 2-1 Cove Rangers

Ah drat, you did indeed! Fixed now. Thanks!

https://www.idlehandsduffy.com/post/diamond-watches-and-that-s-why-we-watch-the-fitba Blog post in anticipation of Saturday. We're getting very carried away and I absolutely love it.

Aye, there's a wee barcode on the back of the card. They will scan that in the turnstile and that's it.

Right over my heid!

Defo has to be a one off, as it is quite obviously unsustainable to do that even semi-regularly.

Tickets for a tenner (fiver for concessions) is pretty bloody excellent as gestures go, in my opinion. Hope it is met with a good response.