Mr November

I was thinking about this yesterday and even before Murray the board backed Findlay in their first January window to bring in Carrick, Duffy etc., before giving him the security of a permanent contract and an ostensibly decent budget in the summer to bring in an average League One select. They then quickly realised that it wasn’t working and brought Murray in after a quarter and stuck by him on multiple occasions when I think it would be fair to say a majority of fans wanted him gone. No board is ever going to be perfect but I’ve seen enough now to trust their judgement on footballing decisions. Having a proven record of supporting managers and giving them time can only be a good thing going forward too. It’s night and day from the chaos of the Wotherspoon era and a clear step up professionally from the Boyle/Bollan years.

I would agree with this. Fair to say both Airdrie and Queens improved massively when they were able to play much better keepers. My earlier post possibly sounded a lot harsher on Rae than I intended to be fair, as I do think he’s the best keeper we’ve had for ages and would be a huge loss if he was to leave in the summer.

Fair enough, I know he was linked with Carlisle for a while and that seemingly fell through. I thought I’d read that was more on their end but that might explain it.

I think Rae is a very good keeper but nobody better than us wanted him last summer after a seemingly good season at Queen of the South. I’m not sure spending half a season injured and then getting sent off twice will do enough for a bigger club to come in for him just yet. Likewise, I’d be delighted to have Jamieson in. He’s been a very solid lower league keeper for years now and seems like a good, experienced professional. As you say, he seemed to enjoy yesterday almost as much as us!

Hopefully it’s Callum Smith’s turn to win this one after Connor won last year. I think Accies will be in the stand opposite the main one, which generally makes for a better atmosphere. We did that for Cove and Queen’s Park last season. I feel oddly ok about this at the moment, though I have no doubt the usual fear will kick in very soon. We’ve seen two sides to this Airdrie team over the semi-finals. A ridiculously clinical first half against Falkirk, strong defensive resolve to hold out a man down at 5-2 and then a very comfortable, compact performance yesterday, with McCabe knowing exactly what McGlynn would do throughout. The big question is whether we can continue that for another two games. Not having played extra time and requiring a momentous performance to win the semi-final second leg like the last two years can only help too. Given the performances over the season, particularly the last quarter and the semi-finals, I think we have to be confident going into this, though equally wary that it’s Airdrie in a play-off final and Hamilton might have a bit more about them than some expected after yesterday. I can’t say I’ve seen much of Hamilton this season but sometimes a result like that can be a catalyst for going on a run. I’m expecting a much tougher game than the semi-finals anyway. Hopefully this is the year we can do it.

Maybury is a weird one. He did well to get Edinburgh promoted straight after coming in and obviously had a great start to this season but they only picked up 13 points from their last 16 games. With Mutch, Craigen and Robertson already away, I reckon they’ll struggle next season. Allan Johnston seems the obvious shout for me. Admittedly I didn’t want him anywhere near the Airdrie job last summer but his one skill of comfortably winning League One when he has by far the biggest budget seems an ideal fit for Falkirk next season. Deal with him being out of his depth in the Championship later, just get there first.

Even from the outside I agree. I enjoy laughing at Falkirk TV as much as anyone else but Lewis just seems like someone who really loves Falkirk and fair play to anyone willing to spend a decent amount of their time, and be less involved in being a fan, for nothing in return. Have a laugh at his commentary but every lower league Scottish club has a few fans like him and that’s a good thing.

He was very solid. Made all the saves you’d expect and slowed the game down when it was needed. I think emergency loans are for a minimum of 7 days, so I assume he’ll be eligible for Wednesday night. It seems like Josh Rae will be back though so suspect he’ll come straight back in.

When you consider some of the nonsense we’ve seen this season, I think today’s performance was arguably more impressive than Tuesday night. We’ve struggled to be compact at times but McCabe got it spot on today. Let Falkirk have plenty of the ball, try and stop the crosses and don’t let them run in behind. I never felt like Falkirk were going to score and bar a few balls into the box in the first half, for all their possession they rarely threatened. McCabe and Ballantyne were the two best players on the park once again.

This is now a Darren Jamieson’s time wasting fan account.

I can’t believe he still has a year on his contract, feels like he’s been there for years now. I’m sure you feel even worse about it.

I see both Hibs players are with McNamara’s agency

We play a very expansive, attacking 4-3-3 at the moment with the wide forwards pushing very high and the two advanced midfielders finding pockets of space. I’m guessing O’Connor might be used out wide and Aiken through the middle based on that? It’s a weird time to announce the signings but I do think whatever league we’re in we’ll be an attractive club for loans, as teams will want players playing in his style of football.

Some good behind the goals stuff here. Burrell in the wall at the second goal Nelson Muntz being heard at the penalty just before the chorus of boos kick in

Helpful as ever, cheers!

I posted similar on the match thread but as an Airdrie fan who was at that Queen’s Park game, last night was miles worse from Falkirk. I felt Falkirk caused a lot of their own issues in that Queen’s Park game, embarrassingly poor on the ball and just gifting goals away. Last night was different as I didn’t think the goals came from mistakes, instead Falkirk just looked powerless to stop Airdrie every time they went forward and to be honest didn’t seem interested in trying. I’ve seen a lot of bad Airdrie performances in the play-offs but I’ve never seen anything quite like that.

I posted similar on the match thread but decision making is Rae’s weakness. He’s as good a keeper as you’ll get at this level but he makes so may daft decisions on timing when to come out his box. I suppose he’s still very young for his position but he does need to learn from that. I would assume Dabrowski can’t play for Hibs until next season (sound the @Skyline Drifter horn) but bringing Johnson back in would be the ideal scenario. I’m sure we’ll try for that and if not bring someone else in, as I don’t think even Hutton himself wants to play.

What a laugh. I had a bit of a cold anyway but I’ve woken up sounding like Sean Dyche and keep periodically bursting out laughing thinking about last night. I’ve seen Airdrie hammer many teams this season, and was even at the 6-0 Queen’s Park v Falkirk game last season, but I’ve never seen a first half quite like that. Airdrie often have games where we start at an incredibly high tempo and are then relentless but last night wasn’t really like that, it was an even game until Devenny scored early on and then it just seemed like every time we went forward we scored. Falkirk still had plenty of the ball but just weren’t able to handle us. Indeed, the only way Donaldson and McGinn could deal with Gallagher was by kicking him after tackles. Donaldson in particular seemed very rattled, though he did look interested which is more than some of his colleagues. The second half was bizarre. To be 5-2 up in a play-off semi yet feel like you’re losing is a weird feeling. Rae’s moment of madness is why he’s at this level. As a goalkeeper he’s probably the best in the league but he makes stupid decisions worryingly often. That’s two red cards in half a season, plus the other Dunfermline game when he arguably should have been off. It felt inevitable that the resulting free-kick would go in and I did have the fear that Airdrie were about to produce the ultimate bottle job but fair play, McCabe changed a few things about and slowed the game down. The penalty at the end was vital, stops Falkirk taking any momentum into Saturday and I think everyone in the stadium knew that. Shout out to Aaron Taylor-Sinclair for his celebration after his goal. Charlie Telfer’s face after that is the happiest I’ve ever seen him, he really enjoyed that one and fair play. I watched McGlynn’s interview there and he comes across terribly. No accountability for his poor tactics which seemed problematic from the start, bringing up the anti-Falkirk penalty agenda and then in the last minute just seeming like a broken man out of ideas. I’d feel sorry for him if it wasn’t John McGlynn. I’m still not fully relaxed about Saturday. If any team can mess this up it’s Airdrie but it’s hard to see how McGlynn, who’s not exactly Mr Motivator at the best of times, turns things around and gets that team and the fans up for Saturday.

I loved McCabe and Fordyce’s reactions to their goals last night. I think we’ve all praised them a lot this season but also been critical when we’ve seen the same recurring issues. It must be hard balancing playing and managing for both of them but you can see how much it means to them.

Yeah, can’t argue with you on this. I was adamant McMaster was the right choice but fair play, McCabe showed his quality in two huge moments and also helped dropping back into defence to see out the game. I did think we lacked legs in midfield at times in the second half but he did well to bring on Stanway and Telfer to slow things down.

You’d be better off with Gavin Williamson at right back!

A repeat of August. Sensational.

I’m not as sold on him as many but I think it’s more his positioning than anything else. McCabe drops far too deep and it’s notable that our midfield are generally in a better shape with McMaster at the base. We concede fewer goals from just outside the box too, something that happened frequently in the first half of the season. McCabe is undoubtedly a better player but McMaster playing there gives the team more balance.

Oh I do agree with you, was just thinking about why they might have been voted in. I said in this thread I didn’t consider any of them for my team of the season out of principle for some of the nonsense I’ve seen this season. I suppose looking across all of the predictions on here, Benedictus and Edwards were the obvious two. Right back a bit more variable so I can see why a name like Ballantyne might stand out a bit more and Fordyce is a regular on these teams.

I do agree but Airdrie kept the most clean sheets outside of Dunfermline. Our main issue defensively is that we’re prone to having games where we’re a disaster at the back rather than being consistently poor. I don’t know when voting takes place but Fordyce and Ballantyne have both done very well over the last couple of months, so I can see why recency bias might have got them in.