Diamond10

No interest in re-starting the season if the playoffs are off the table would make no sense to the majority in the league.

In other news, I must say I’m surprised that league 1 & 2 are allowed to resume. At this point I had lost all hope/interest in this season. A lot of questions need answered before then though. If Murray does go to ayr, which I doubt, there couldn’t be a worse time. Also I’m led to believe part of the reason that Stuart millar took a more hands on role in the training/matchdays was the rule we have to have two sfa qualified coaches. Not sure what qualifications prunts and crighton hold but maybe we’ll be forced to bring in another coach regardless. In terms of players, for us we haven’t been hampered too much. In keeping a hold of Robert and only really losing MacDonald I can’t say I’m too bothered if he returns on loan or not - I see he’s been starting for Dunfermline. A benefit to us is our playoff rivals east fife lost jack hamilton and I think Montrose have lost Mochrie and Cochrane back to their parent clubs. Will be interesting to see if we have any more players lined up or the impact millar having left on that front. At least we’ll have football back on a Saturday though hopefully for good this time.

Paul McKay is becoming a bit of a scapegoat here. Admittedly, no world beater but he’s far from the worse we’ve seen in recent times. If Kurtis roberts and Kieran millar were any better they wouldn’t be jobbing around league 2 in all fairness. As Airdrieman suggested I think the problem more lies in Murray playing 3 defensively minded players in midfield off the top of my head games we’ve done well in, Forfar away for example we dropped one to play an extra attacker which worked that day. To score more goals and create more chances that’s what we need. A centre mid pairing of Kerr and McKay along with a more attacking midfielder might work. Overall, We’ve got a pretty average team in my opinion hence some weeks we do well then the next struggle. Remarkably, if we won our game in hand on the top 3 we’d be second after our pretty gloomy start - which says all you need to know about the league.

Fair play just an opinion mate . I just thinking having watched some of the games the standard is pretty average and isn’t a lot better than our league and the squads of some of the teams aren’t that great. I Think even ayr and Morton have regressed. And gone are the days of the a strong Falkirk and thistle in there. I just think if we put together a half decent squad and managed to get there one way or another we’d have a better chance staying there than say a few years ago. I agree we need more quality over quantity and even if that means getting a couple more part timers in then so be it.

Agreed in league 1 the hybrid model has provided limited success. I’d imagine a lot of the thinking behind it is if we are to get to the championship we could be competitive with the majority being full time sides instead of propping up the table as the part timers tend to do. For what it’s worth, I’ve watched a good few championship games this season and the step up doesn’t look that big to be honest (if you take hearts out the equation). Raith with largely the team of last season who were nothing great last season are second, teams like Alloa , Arbroath , QoS won’t be much better than teams like Falkirk cove Montrose and ourselves. Of course we’d need to get there first .

I’m hoping if anything it’s just youth players involved in a set up like that?

Still unsure what to make of the recent developments, just hope we are not entering another period of turmoil off the park. I can’t see us playing again until next season so I’m unsure if that has something to play in it. In regards to miller, I never had any dealings with him personally but he was an airdrie man who quite obviously had the best interests of the club at heart and was the only person to liaise with the fans so no doubt he’ll be a miss. On the other hand, I felt especially this year with Miller obviously taking on more responsibilities with on the park stuff it could’ve maybe blurred the lines with who’s actually calling the shots if he was already signing the players then involved in coaching the team. Now Murray and prunty can hopefully bring in someone else and have more of a say in signings etc and Murray can live or die by that . Does anyone actually know apart from the hetheringtons and mckays who is actually involved at the club? I’ve lost track.

Are we meant to feel sorry for the championship side that finish 9th having to wait a couple of weeks for us to finish when we haven’t kicked a ball in the league for 5 weeks as it stands ?

Why should league 1 teams in the playoff positions care if the championship team has to wait a couple of weeks for our league to finish? Airdrie for example sit 4th and haven’t played a league game for 5 weeks and counting do you not think that’s detrimental to our season as it stands now?

Don’t blame you having seen Clyde twice this year

Out of interest Do we have any idea who the players were that we were in for, that Stuart Miller had mentioned?

Fair play to him then. Just felt we could’ve and should’ve pushed the boat out a bit to secure him after him pretty much spelling out he wanted to play for us. Get we need a larger squad for full time training but quality over quantity is what we need to get out of this league.

Have to totally agree the Chucky situation still irritates me. You’ve got a obviously talented player who wants to play for our club liked by the fans and management team and we somehow let him slip through the net and end up at an average league 2 side. How many games this season have we struggled to score. Like you say I’d rather have a match winner than a team padded out with average squad players. The season we last got to the playoffs chucky and beany carried us all the way through with a pretty poor side overall. Don’t want to totally slate the club but A poor decision not securing Andy Ryan along with letting Colin Cameron go has and probably will still hurt us.

Liverpool need to break their own transfer policy and panic buy this month if they want to win the league again imo.

As I mentioned a few days ago I wouldn’t lose much sleep about anyone moving on especially if it helps the club out financially at the moment. MacDonald hasn’t lived up to his exploits of last season a bit like McCann also. Think he’s pretty replaceable . Hopefully with these links with Dunfermline they can loan us a couple of their fringe players like smith and Chucky last season. All the best to Kyle though you certainly can’t fault his effort hope he does well. Not looking forward to another football less Saturday tomorrow.

Think the criticism of crighton isn’t totally fair can think of one glaring error at east fife that cost us a goal. I think he’s had a couple of nightmares so far this year but he’s an asset to have and the partnership with Fordyce has been pretty solid over the last season and a bit. All in all, a good captain and leader On and off the park. The coaching thing is a strange one you forget he’s only 30 so has plenty of years in him playing yet. I think he still has a lot to offer airdrie as a player. McDonald and McCann haven’t hit the heights of last year so far so maybe dropping Kerr to centre half and playing a back 3 could be a shout freeing up another attacker. For me our main problem lies in going forward so many times this season we’ve barely created a chance or even mustered a couple of shots. Dumbarton , east fife, Montrose & Edinburgh city all spring to mind we could’ve played those games all day and still not scored. Think people are getting too caught up in wanting to blame the defence. When In so many games our attackers have offered up nothing.

For what is worth, and without going into much detail again, I still feel the playing squad has regressed this season from last and we were in a much better position to get promoted when the season was called to now. I can’t see football returning in 3/4 weeks. Sadly. And to the relevant authorities to let clubs at our level build squads and set up streaming equipment and protocols for a farce of a season this year shows their utter contempt. As for the playing squad I wouldn’t be overly disappointed to lose any of them to be honest. And if offers were to come in from higher levels for Robert or the likes of Leon McCann etc with the prospect of not playing in the near future we should take the money and run imo.

Only logical thing to do at this point is call the season and award raith rovers the title imo In all serious though I wonder if our league would’ve been treated with as much contempt if it had been the season rangers were in our league. We’ve been disallowed finishing last season then allowed to build squads and set up live streaming equipment to compete in a farce of a season this year. I doubt they’ll have even asked if our clubs would like to continue or not at this point. I don’t hold out much hope for the return of football at this level in 3/4 weeks. Sadly.

Back to our toothless coward like performance today. No one with pass marks today. Disappointing after two positive results at Falkirk and Clyde to turn in a performance like that. Going forward I think fresh blood is required this January if we have any ambition of making the playoffs. The only positive I can think of is, as I think I mentioned before, my total apathy towards all domestic cup competitions means it hopefully won’t live long in the memory. League far more important to me.

Positive news Regarding Connell. With Roy coming back he will almost be like a new signing also to compete with Gallagher and carrick. Not sure if we can expect any further movements but a new backup keeper and a creative attacking centre midfielder wouldn’t go a miss. As for the returning loanees, don’t know much about Burke but Moore the few times I’ve seen him play has impressed so wouldn’t be against getting him involved.

Have also thought of the similarities to Willie McLaren . As a young fan In the 03/04 promotion season He will always be one of my favourite airdrie players that season as you mention he was top class. Could glide past opponents and score with ease. Great times ! Shame he never reached his full potential as I’m sure Robert will.

Hutton is a solid keeper in league 1 and he won us numerous points so he should stroll it. A good leader on the park and a good guy to have about the place . Will give you everything and should pick you up points along the way. Wasn’t too long ago brechin fans were waxing lyrical about their team before the rapid decline. All the best to you and especially Hutts getting out of the predicament you’re in.

No problem with game getting called off today with temperatures being so low all week. Most seasons postponements aren’t much of an issue this year being the exception with teams risking themselves training for a game with little chance going ahead . Going forward though you obviously have problems with your pitch if you have games called off as regularly as you do and in all months of the year it does start to become a bit of a farce. With temperatures to remain the same all week you could pretty much call off your game next week already. As for the artificial “livi” argument Dumbarton probably have had more games called off in the last week than livi in recent seasons so that’s a non starter. Airdrie used to have games called off due to water logging all the time and now we never do. We also use the stadium to train so don’t pay to train somewhere else and rent out the pitch during the week creating income so I don’t think it’s a pie in the sky project these thing generate their money back over time.

If we can have a better calibre player even if it’s only for one season we have to take it imo. If we make a few quid then that’s a bonus. Apparently a host of English clubs joining the Scottish clubs in chasing Robert now will be interesting to see where he will end up. As far as the livi chat goes not sure if dykes was talked up as much as Robert has been before he moved to livi. No guarantees it would all work out like that for airdrie and Robert also with big sell on clauses. I’d imagine another successful couple of months at airdrie Robert could aim higher than that and for a bigger wage if that’s what he wanted. Anyway, doubt we will see any football tomorrow. Happy new year to all diamonds

Another positive performance and result today have been critical so again praise where it’s due also to the team and Murray. Was quietly confident but you never know what you’ll get from us. However, the first half an hour or so was as good as I’ve seen us play in a long time can only hope that we can string a few results together and can push on. The next 2 league games are again very much winnable in Dumbarton and Peterhead. As for David Hutton can only echo my sentiments from a few days ago. A great servant over the past few seasons putting in many quality performances. A player who loved to play for airdrie and will be missed on and off the park. Hope he gets the game time he needs at a decent club and wish him well.