Mr November
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Everything posted by Mr November
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Dundee United 2-0 Arbroath Inverness 1-1 Airdrie Queen’s Park 1-1 Partick Thistle Raith Rovers 2-1 Dunfermline
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Feels a bit bizarre that Morton have went almost half a season unbeaten and yet we can go above them if we win our game in hand. I’m still looking over the shoulder rather than upwards but a few more wins like that would be fantastic. I’ve missed the last two away games, maybe I should just stop going if this is what happens!
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Pars vs Airdrie, Tuesday 5th March
Mr November replied to DA Baracus's topic in Scottish Championship General Chatter
This seemed vaguely familiar to me and turns out it was all the way back in 2009, as @parsforlife says I think that was when we lost the play-off final to Ayr and were relegated before Livingston were punted to the fourth tier and we had to make up the numbers again. Couldn’t remember who the trialist was but turns out it was Thomas Nolan. He got an assist in the previous game but was let go after that cracking own goal and doesn’t appear to have played senior football again after that. What a legacy! -
Airdrie v Spiders
Mr November replied to The red diamond's topic in Scottish Championship General Chatter
I think both sets of fans would happily settle for the last day at Hampden to be a dead rubber with no threat of play-offs at either end. -
I think the biggest surprise for me has been Watson. I was happy to keep him but more as a backup, he was a very good League One right back but often struggled when playing in the middle and I worried his lack of pace would be exposed at a higher level. He’s had a few poor games (Ayr stands out in recent memory) but he’s largely been very solid this season, even when playing at centre back.
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I think if we stay up then this will be his last season. I’ll always stick up for him I think he’s the only part-time player remaining at the club these days and if he’s not starting every week it probably feels like a natural end point, where we go completely full-time and Gallagher has his pick of the part-time clubs. I’ve said it before but I think it has to be him or Fordyce for the greatest modern day Airdrieonian. On that theme, nice to see that last night was McCabe’s 100th game. He had a slightly nomadic career in the five or so years before he came to Airdrie and I remember him talking in an interview (possibly when he became manager) about wanting a settled club close to home with a young family, so hopefully he’s happy to stick with that for a while yet. It’s great having a core of players who’ve played 100 or so games form the spine of this team (Watson, Fordyce, Frizzell, McCabe, Gallagher and even McGill isn’t far away).
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Arbroath 0-2 Raith Rovers Airdrie 1-1 Queen’s Park Dunfermline 1-1 Ayr Morton 2-0 Inverness Partick Thistle 1-2 Dundee United
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A massive win that we badly needed. Once again, score the first goal and we’re fine. Hopefully Hancock’s injury isn’t too bad. It’s not quite as big a deal as it would have been before Megwa returned but Hancock has been our best player this season, so losing him for even a few weeks would be a blow, especially with so many big games coming up.
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Interesting team tonight. I can’t work out whether it’s a back five again with a fairly attacking midfield or a diamond with Hancock/Ballantyne at centre back. Pleased to see Gallagher and McGill back in, with McGregor out we need a runner up top and Todorov doesn’t offer anywhere near enough when he’s not scoring, so Gallagher deserves another chance, especially in a game where we might need his hold up play.
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Is he out of contract in the summer? Seems like someone Dundee United might want to improve on if they go up, so could definitely see him joining then.
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I’d stick with the diamond for the next few games. I thought we played pretty well against Ayr going forward, just very poor defensive mistakes. Happy to accept that as a particularly bad day and hopefully it sorts itself out with Fordyce back in there. If we do play a back three I think Ballantyne is the weirdest choice to move in. Megwa is very good defensively but lacking going forward, Hancock our best attacking outlet but also the most comfortable in the middle while Ballantyne is probably better at driving forward than Megwa.
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I think so yeah, though not sure if that’s a specified rule or just what is generally allowed. Was wondering yesterday actually about if Murray Johnston would be allowed to join us on an emergency loan the next time Rae is unavailable even though we already have three Hibs loanees. As you say, it can get a bit confusing.
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I think it’s max five from Scotland (with max three from the same club), so Donnell wouldn’t count for that. Still a space left for a non-Hibs loanee.
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Ayr 2-2 Partick Thistle Dundee United 2-0 Airdrie Inverness 1-1 Dunfermline Queen’s Park 2-0 Arbroath Raith 1-1 Morton
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Our poor away from and struggles in the final third are both well documented but I was having a look at our record in games after scoring v conceding the first goal. Excluding the 0-0 against Morton, the difference between them is quite stark: Scored Opening Goal P9 W6 D2 L1 (Dunfermline away) Conceded Opening Goal P13 W2 (Partick Thistle, Queen’s Park) D1 L10 Pretty much every game this season has been tight, even games like today where we’re miles off it for the first period of the game we end up only losing by a goal. The frustrating trend is in games, particularly away from home (Dundee United, Arbroath, Inverness, Partick Thistle, Ayr, Morton), where we concede in the first half and then struggle to get back into the game. I certainly don’t expect us to win most of those games but even so, with plenty of away games left that’s definitely something we need to improve on.
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Once again a very frustrating performance away from home. Far too soft in the opening half hour, concede an early goal (or two in this case) and by that point the game is done. I thought Morton were very impressive in the first half, they have a real identity in the way they press from the front aggressively, move the ball quickly and always have players on the move when they win possession. I’ve liked Oakley for a while but he bullied our entire defence today, he uses his size so much better than Todorov. The referee and cowshed side linesmen were absolutely useless all game for both teams. I didn’t think there was too much in the ATS challenge early on so will need to see a replay of that but the Morton fans seem evident he should’ve seen red. After that we had Garrity being at least a couple of yards offside for his goal, I think Airdrie should have had at least a free-kick when Mullen flattened McGregor and then the linesman completely missed what looked like Megwa hitting Waters near the end.
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Definitely not. Weirdly it’s Ballantyne in the back three but miles off it in the opening 25 minutes or so and it’s cost us.
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Had a feeling McCabe would drop himself after a poor performance last week. I think this will be it too, the same setup we had in the 1-1 draw at Kirkcaldy with McMaster and Telfer a bit deeper and Frizzell and Lyall playing off Todorov.
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Partick Thistle 3-1 Dunfermline Arbroath 1-2 Inverness Ayr 1-2 Raith Rovers Dundee United 1-0 Queen’s Park Morton 1-0 Airdrie
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Delighted to have Megwa back. We certainly lack in other areas but I’m not sure there’s many teams in this league where I’d swap our full-back options. I’m not advocating for changing the shape from a diamond, which has worked so well recently, but we did start a defence of almost entirely full-backs in the first half hour at Kirkcaldy in the 1-1 draw. It looked oddly defensive on paper but we played something like this until Hancock went off injured and looked excellent for that short spell: Rae Watson - ATS - Hancock Megwa - McMaster - McCabe - Ballantyne Telfer - Frizzell Todorov Any word on Murray Aiken? That’s been almost four months now so fingers crossed he can play a part during the last quarter. It’s a shame his season has turned out like this as I think he’d be a great fit in one of the wider diamond positions that Telfer and McStravick have played recently.
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Hopefully Fordyce is back for this, if not I’d be tempted to bring ATS back in as I don’t fancy a combination of Watson and McCabe against Oakley. We have a good record of bouncing back from defensive disasters under McCabe, if another boring game here gives us a point then I’d be happy enough with that.
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I think that’s the closest performance to last season that we’ve seen. We looked dangerous going forward in the first half, using the width well and getting lots of balls across goal. Unfortunately we were also a shambles at the other end. Three really soft goals. As others have said, was impressed with Hancock, McMaster and McGregor today but McCabe, Donnell and Watson were miles off it. Badly missed Fordyce, particularly in the air as Dowds bullied McCabe all game. We even had Rae trying to catch the ball outside the box like last season and then not paying attention. I did worry that Ayr, Morton and Dundee United would be a tricky run but hopefully we can bounce back next week. The league table is very tight and I’m still aiming for survival rather than 4th, as much as that would be a nice bonus.
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Sad news. His playing and managerial career were both well before my time but my grandpa got me into supporting Airdrie and Iain McMillan was his hero. The greatest Airdrieonian and by all accounts a real gentleman too.
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Rearranged games confirmed for Dunfermline (5th March), Arbroath (2nd April) and Raith (9th April). Busy couple of months ahead!
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Raith 0-2 Dundee United Airdrie 1-1 Ayr Dunfermline 1-1 Arbroath Inverness 1-2 Partick Thistle Queen’s Park 1-1 Morton