Mr November

I’m a big fan of Harlain Mbayo’s twitter just becoming a Thomas Robert fan page. He’s not likely to play much but he seems like a good guy to have around.

I really enjoyed that second half performance, we certainly looked threatening going forward and if we can play like that more often we’ll cause every team in this league problems. The less said about the first half the better. I couldn’t really work out our shape at times in the second half, it seemed to be a back three with Walker and McCann pushing forward, Carrick dropping deep and Robert almost having a free role up front. Whatever it was, it seemed to work quite well and was a big improvement on the first half where we were too deep and gave Cove far too much of the ball. I thought Robert was excellent again, it’s great having a player who is so exciting to watch going forward. He seems to be really enjoying it too. Paul McKay had a very good game in midfield too, him and Sabatini seemed to swap roles with McKay being very composed and Sabatini struggling to get into the game. Cove are the best team we’ve played in the league so far. They look like a well organised side with some quality players throughout. Harry Milne and Jamie Masson in particular linked up well down the left, I thought Milne was probably the best player on the park. Overall a draw was probably the fair result with both teams dominating a half each. I suspect come the end of the season there won’t be many points separating both teams.

I think today’s game showed the importance of having someone like Thomas Robert in the team. With any of Murray’s previous teams we’d have lost that 1-0 but having a player with Robert’s ability and confidence makes a massive difference when trying to break teams down. Cove seemed to struggle to deal with him outside of constantly bringing him down. Robert might even be our new Jamie Bain (who’d have thought) in that he doesn’t seem to score tap-ins! I thought Kyle Connell was excellent when he came on too, he seems to be improving with every game. Hopefully we can keep him beyond January.

Strange that Walker’s barely been on the bench this season but is now starting. I hope he’s good though, I’ve been saying all season there’s no point in signing the younger players if you’re not going to use them so today will give us a decent idea if he’s up to it.

I can't wait to turn on the stream at 3pm and see Paul McKay as the lone striker.

Gallagher, Connell and Roy are all doubts according to the preview on the website. Bit concerning if they’re all out as we saw in the recent cup games what a difference having a focal point in Gallagher makes. I really like Carrick but not sure he’s great at being the main striker.

I don't think I've ever been as convinced about Airdrie losing a goal as I was just before the corner for Cove's winner in that 3-2 game. That was an awful day and a real low point for the club, more so for the off the park nonsense than losing to a highland league team, but ultimately a really important one in terms of where the club is now. We're definitely in a much better place now and I don't think any of those players at their 2017 levels would get in the current team (MacDonald and Hastie would now). It's quite interesting to see how many of Cove's players that day are still regulars for them. As usual in this league I'm expecting a very tough game but I'm quietly confident Airdrie will edge it by one goal. Ignoring the cup games where we really lacked Gallagher as a focal point, the last two league games have been excellent and if we're as exciting going forward as we were in those games we'll definitely cause Cove problems. I think the same will be true for Cove though. I'd probably go with the same team that beat Forfar. Leaving out Sabatini is a tough call but McKay and Kerr played well on Saturday so I'm happy to go with that again with the knowledge we have options to change it, though I wouldn't be surprised if Murray drops MacDonald for Sabatini with McKay moving to right back. It's good to have at least one good option on the bench though rather than trying to decide which 11 players I dislike the least.

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

A win would take us above Cove which seems bizarre when we’re always one defeat away from people calling for Murray to be sacked. It’s really important that we do get a result though. I think this season will be a bit like last season with the top three or four teams being pretty close to each other. If we play like we did in the first half today then we’re more than a match for anyone in this league, it’s just a case of waiting to see which Airdrie turn up.

I thought Murray saying we don’t have a big squad here was interesting, we probably have the biggest squad in the league! Admittedly we’re a bit light up front just now with Gallagher and Roy out but plenty of options elsewhere, even if some of those options aren’t great.

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

Who's going to take one for the team and spend £15 to watch the Livi game on Saturday to let us all know how it goes?

Yeah, the Hearts game was the midweek before the 5-0 Morton game. Looking at the Hearts team it’s actually quite strong; Christophe Berra, Lee Wallace, Marius Zaliukas, Michael Stewart and Saulius Mikoliunas among others. Despite those international players they couldn’t beat a team that featured David Nixon, Michael Brown, Darren Smith and Kevin McDonald. It all went downhill when Kenny Black was handed a three year contract after the Challenge Cup final.

David Nixon is a real throwback. I can’t remember what their record was but wild that a back five of Stephen Robertson, Marc Smyth, Bobby Donnelly, David Nixon and Matthew Hazley kept a load of clean sheets for a while.

Yeah last season was a lot of hit and miss performances with changes to the team and formation every week until things clicked up at Forfar. Hopefully we’ve found that today.

That was excellent, night and day compared to last week. The team was much more attacking, definitely the best football we’ve played in a while. Robert was excellent and really dangerous going forward and Sabatini is a class act, not many midfielders in this league who are as composed on the ball as he is. Defensively we seemed fine, Goodwillie was relatively quiet by his usual standards and McCann seemed back to his best. It’s good to see Gallagher and Carrick getting a couple of goals each and Connell getting his first goal too. Absolutely no complaints which is rare for a Saturday evening! I could be wrong but I think that’s the first time we’ve scored 5 goals since 2014 and the first time since that 11-0 game against Gala Fairydean that we’ve won by 5 or more goals. Fair play to Airdrie for waiting until we’re not there to see it but I’ll happily take it as it is. I originally thought we should change things up for the cup games to give the likes of Stokes, Mbayo and Ritchie some game time but I think I’d try and start today’s team on Wednesday night to build up some familiarity. Are we now back to Murray in?

Yeah I agree with this. Kerr and Sabatini worked well pre-season but I think I’d go with McKay and Sabatini tomorrow as McKay offers a bit more going forward. I think Carrick has the skills to play a similar role to Kurtis Roberts last year, driving the team forward and supporting the striker and wide players, but at a higher level and hopefully for a full 90 minutes. I thought Connell was ok last week but I’d go with Gallagher ahead of him for this.

As much as a lot of young loan players we’ve had have been rubbish, I’d still rather take a chance on an unproven player with potential than sign clearly past it players like Hugo Faria, David Van Zanten or Simon Mensing, all of whom were probably on good wages. You definitely need experience but I’m happy enough if that’s from players like Crighton, Fordyce and Carrick who have good experience in this league and at a higher level. I’d love it if we could sign an experienced midfielder who can control a game but sadly there’s probably not too many of those available in our budget.

An interesting post on Stuart Millar’s time in charge of Clyde over on their thread. I thought it was quite notable that he wasn’t able to put together a good midfield there. I think most Airdrie fans would agree that midfield, in particular their lack of creative output and support for the strikers, has been our biggest problem over the last couple of seasons.

Two teams who won their first games but have struggled since. I doubt either side’s fans are terribly confident going into this but there’s no reason why Airdrie can’t win this and if we want to push for promotion we really need to be winning our home games. Last season’s games against Clyde were a real mixed bag. Airdrie were excellent in the second half of the 3-1 home win but never turned up in the game at Broadwood, where Clyde were by far the better team. My main memories of the other game are the indirect free kick in the penalty box and Paul McKay playing on the wing but Airdrie were fairly comfortable winners on the day. I’m expecting Saturday’s game to be a bit tighter though. Goodwillie normally gives Crighton and Fordyce a hard time so hopefully they’ve improved on last week’s performance. I think Murray will make a few changes for this one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of MacDonald, Thomson, Connell and Gallagher dropping to the bench.

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

I think today was our 9th home league defeat without scoring and 10th home league defeat overall under Ian Murray, which seems like quite a lot out of 30 home league games. Things like that are why I find him so frustrating, we’re obviously doing ok outside of that to still be finishing 3rd last season but we drop so many points due to poor team selections and a clear inability to break teams down.

Yeah this is something I’ve mentioned a few times but I’ve still got no idea why we signed five guys who will clearly never play. We’re allowed to name nine subs now, other teams in the league do it, yet we’ve only names seven in all three league games. If these guys aren’t good enough to fill a space on the bench why did we sign them? To be fair to Pyott he seems to be injured and obviously Moore and Burke are away out on loan (again, why even sign them this season just to loan them out?) but Walker and Hughes barely played in pre-season and now can’t even get an empty spot on the bench.

That was a great example of all of our common problems under Murray. Strange team selection, struggling to break teams down and poor home form. I’ve not been as worried as some about other attacking options given how well the defence played last season but that’s two weeks in a row they’ve been caught out by great unmarked runs. MacDonald and McCann have done ok going forward this season but I don’t think either of them have looked as strong defensively as they did last season. I don’t think I’d change the back four, they’re still our best options, but they do need to improve. A midfield two of Kerr and McKay is never going to work in a game where you expect to have more of the ball, a real lack of creativity there. Dropping Sabatini ahead of those two was a baffling decision. Kerr played well in the cup games but he’s been poor in the league, particularly the last two games, and McKay has his uses but hasn’t really shown much throughout his time to make him the guaranteed starter that he seems to be. Thomson works hard and always puts in a good shift but his lack of a final ball is a big problem. I’m not fully convinced on O’Reilly yet but I’d definitely start him ahead of Thomson next week. Carrick is one of our best players and I’d have him in the team every week so no real issues with his selection. I thought Robert was good when he came on today so I’d be keen to go with him alongside Carrick and O’Reilly next week. Stokes hasn’t had too many opportunities so far but I don’t think he’s done too much when he has played. I’m a big fan of Calum Gallagher but he hasn’t really performed at all this season. Who would have thought we’d be saying that we really miss Ally Roy three games into the season! Connell looked decent today and caused some problems but I felt most of his good play so far has came down the channels or off the back of long throws. Early days but I’m not convinced he’s a natural goalscorer, I hope I’m proved wrong though. I’d probably still go with Gallagher next week but I’m starting to lose patience with him, although he’s not helped by the lack of good service. Ultimately, while some players haven’t performed well today/this season, a lot of these issues lie with Ian Murray. I’m not fully in the Murray out group, I made a post the other day saying that we have improved under him and while I do like him he is frustrating, and today was a prime example of why he can be so frustrating. When our home form was poor at the start of last season I thought he had to drastically improve things, which he did with our great run around October/November. I don’t think things are as bad now as they were then but it’s still the same issues and we really need to pick up wins in our next couple of games, which are definitely winnable, if we want to be challenging for promotion.

I almost miss the booing and shouts of “FUCKING CHANGE IT MURRAY”. Really poor performance from Airdrie and a really disappointing result but we didn’t deserve anything from that. Dumbarton were decent if unspectacular, solid defensively and took their chances well. McGeever and Neill were solid as usual, Wedderburn was the best player on the park and Wilson was a threat all day. That was the team I expected to start but I think most fans would agree a midfield two of McKay and Kerr isn’t going to win you games in this league, particularly games where you expect to have more of the ball. Airdrie never looked like scoring and none of the defence were at their usual levels. I thought Carrick was ok and put himself about but other than that the rest of the midfield and strikers ranged from uninvolved to dreadful. Big changes required for next week.