Mr November

I like Hutton but he’s an easy choice to move on and save a wage when we have cover in that position. Hutton’s been a much better player for us than I think anyone expected when he signed, it’s easy to forget he was originally signed as second choice to Scott Gallacher! He was excellent for us in his first season, while there were a few mistakes he definitely saved us much more than he cost us. That save in our 2-1 win at Stenhousemuir and the penalty save at Celtic were both great moments (we’ll not talk about the goals after that in the Celtic game). I don’t think he was quite as good last season though and seemed to be struggling for form before he was dropped. Max Currie is younger and probably a better keeper so it makes sense to go with him as first choice, especially when he hasn’t really let us down yet. I’m not sure he’s fully deserving of the hero status he seems to have among some Airdrie fans but he’s been a good player for us and I certainly wish him well if he moves on.

Clyde 1-2 Airdrieonians Dumbarton 0-1 East Fife Falkirk 2-1 Partick Thistle Forfar Athletic 2-2 Cove Rangers

Airdrie tried to sign Andy Ryan and couldn’t match what Stirling were offering, so I’d be surprised if Dumbarton could have.

Never in doubt.

Yeah I agree with this. From what I’ve seen Falkirk are much improved on the team we played last season and even then I felt we were lucky to come away with a draw in the December game after Miller and McCracken had came in. We obviously did pretty well against them when Ray McKinnon was in charge, particularly the 2-1 win, but I’m definitely not expecting a repeat of that this time round. What a difference a year makes though, that game and going top of the league the following week was probably the most excited the Airdrie support have been in years. A year or so later and we’re potentially six points off the play-offs after nine games if we lose on Saturday. It’s a massive game for Ian Murray. He really needs a win but it’s hard to see where it’s coming from given the last two games. I still think we’ve seen enough in this Airdrie team to know that they could go and beat Falkirk if things went our way but the inconsistency, current defensive struggles and lack of any shots on target at the moment make that look very unlikely to happen on Saturday. I don’t think we’ll be hammered, we rarely are under Murray, but like yourself I’m expecting a fairly comfortable 2-0 win for Falkirk.

Cove Rangers 2-1 Clyde East Fife 2-0 Forfar Athletic Falkirk 2-0 Airdrieonians Montrose 1-0 Dumbarton Partick Thistle 2-0 Peterhead

Can’t wait for the return of Kenny Black chasing linesman halfway down the pitch and shouting stop the cross 300 times a game.

Yeah quite possibly. I think he was helping with the coaching last season too but his performances have been notably worse since the official announcement. To be honest I’m more concerned that we seem to be getting worse with Stuart Millar seeming more involved. If Murray goes then I think Millar needs to go too but I have the fear we’ll end up with Millar as a caretaker in that situation.

I think that’s the third time we’ve lost to Montrose at home since they were promoted which I think says a lot. They’ve not changed too much in that time, always a solid, consistent side who are well organised defensively with good quality in the final third. We consistently seem to struggle to break them and other teams down though. We’re now guaranteed to have a worse opening quarter than last season and if we lose next week, which seems likely, we’ll have the same number of points that Stevie Findlay managed. I don’t think we’re as bad as we were under Findlay and this is undoubtedly a stronger league but either way, this opening quarter hasn’t been good enough. We only have 8 home games left now and we really haven’t made the most of the ones we’ve had so far. I don’t think home advantage counts for that much in this league, especially with a lack of fans, but our continued poor home form is a real issue.

I’ll happily be proved wrong but taking off Robert and Carrick, two of the players most likely to score, to bring on Thomson and O’Reilly is wild. Neither have had great games but when we lack creativity why take off two of our most creative players?

I don't think many Airdrie fans are looking forward to this. Performances have been very inconsistent so far this season with East Fife last week being a real low point. I'm hesitant to say we can't be any worse, because I know we definitely can be, but I'm hopeful of a much better performance tomorrow. We struggled against Montrose last season and I felt that they got the better of us performance wise in all three games, even the 1-0 win early in the season where we were fortunate Montrose went down to 10 men in the first half. I think Petrie is by far the best manager in this league so I'm always quite wary when facing Montrose but there's no reason why Airdrie shouldn't be looking to win this, as these are the sort of games you need to be winning to challenge for promotion. I would probably line up something like this, as that sort of shape seemed to work well against Clyde and gives us the option to go 4-4-2 if things aren't working. I reckon Murray might leave Gallagher on the bench though and start MacDonald or Thomson instead. Currie Kerr - Crighton - Fordyce - McCann McKay - Sabatini Robert - Carrick - Connell Gallagher

Agnew is a player I've wanted Airdrie to sign for years. He's exactly what we lacked in midfield last season and probably for a few years before that too. He worked with Murray before at Dumbarton and St. Mirren and he spoke pretty highly of him on the Pele podcast a few years ago but I think he's always been under contract at East Fife since Murray's been here.

I think we do miss Millar’s energy and drive at times. He was probably our most consistent player last season with the exception of Fordyce and I’d have been happy for him to stay. However, while he’s very good at charging around and winning the ball back he is a very limited player outside of that. I know he’s not everyone’s favourite but McKay has had a good start to the season and is a much more well rounded player, so I can see why he was kept ahead of Millar. Our biggest problem last season was controlling the midfield and a lack of creativity in there and Millar’s never going to solve those issues. I’m not sure I’d have him in ahead of McKay and Sabatini at the moment but he would be a much better option than the other unproven guys on the bench. I’m glad to see he’s doing well at Stranraer though as I do like him as a player. I still think it’s quite unfortunate that Millar and Wedderburn never really worked well together. In theory they should have complimented each other well, Millar is full of energy and runs around all game winning tackles while Wedderburn can barely move but has a great range of passing. Both had good moments for Airdrie, Millar particularly, but for some reason though it just never seemed to click.

Airdrieonians 1-1 Montrose Clyde 1-3 Falkirk Dumbarton 0-2 Cove Rangers Forfar Athletic 0-1 Partick Thistle Peterhead 1-2 East Fife

We managed 14 points from our first 9 games last season and I think we would all agree we were pretty poor for most of those games. We need 4 points from Montrose and Falkirk to match that total this season. In general though I think you generally need 15/16 points a quarter to ensure a play off finish and that’s already looking like a very tough ask this season. The frustrating thing is I think this team is capable of winning both games, I just don’t see it happening given how inconsistent we’ve been.

We played near enough the same team and system that did so well in the second half against Cove last week with MacDonald in for Walker, which I thought was fair enough going into it. It was clear that it wasn’t working even before East Fife scored though and it was concerning that it took until after the second goal to change to a back four as by that point it was too far late. Next week’s game against Montrose could be very tough. They’ve had a fairly similar start to the season as us but they looked a much better team in every game between us last season, even the game we won. I felt like Murray couldn’t quite work out how to beat Montrose last season given how well organised they are, we got lucky with their sending off in the 1-0 win. We had a good record against Falkirk last season but they seem a much better team this season and that will also be a difficult game. I think how well we do in these two games will be a big indicator for the rest of the season.

Even if we lose our next two games (which is entirely possible) I don’t think Murray will go. Unless we get to a point where we’re 6/7 points adrift of the play offs I think he’ll be here for the season.

Really disappointing. Fair play to East Fife, they played some decent stuff and Hamilton looked a real threat up front but Airdrie were never in that game at all. Defensively we were poor, particularly Crighton, and the midfield and strikers never really linked up at all. With Dumbarton and Montrose picking up points too it really tightens up the league table.

Agreed, the defence as a whole have been poor. To be honest we’ve been nothing like I expected this season. I thought we would be consistent, solid defensively but struggling to score goals. It turns out we’re the opposite of that, giving away silly goals every week but actually looking pretty exciting on our day. Sadly the inconsistency shows in the results so far.

I see Mbayo’s now taken to posting on the facebook page during games too. He seems to be loving life here.

I don’t think the 3 at the back is working today. It changed the game last week but too often we’ve had three men up against Hamilton when in possession which seems like a waste. Gallagher seems to have a good record against East Fife so I’d be looking to bring him on for one of Kerr or MacDonald.

Yeah I think this makes sense. I think no matter how good he was this season he was only ever going to be here for a year. If he can keep up this form and then move onto a big club next summer it can only be a good thing for the club in terms of attracting players in the future/dodgy agreements with agents.

It was fun while it lasted.

Clyde 2-1 Forfar Athletic Cove Rangers 3-1 Montrose East Fife 1-2 Airdrieonians Falkirk 3-0 Peterhead Partick Thistle 2-0 Dumbarton

Yeah even our experienced players are guys like Crighton, Fordyce and Carrick, none of whom are that old. I think Hutton must be our only player well over 30. I don’t think that’s a bad thing though, we don’t want a dressing room full of inexperienced players and players on the way down with nothing in between. It can only be a good thing to have good professionals like Crighton, Fordyce and Carrick for the younger guys to learn from.