Diamond72

From my recollection Kevin McDonald was fairly good, but yes he did think he was Pavel Nedved. Unfortunately he kept being relieved of the ball in midfield which set up numerous attacks for the opposition. His fault or the mananagers?

I think today showed us that fourth place is probably a realistic goal this season. I say this as Cove will undoubtedly get better as the season goes on.....they looked tired against Falkirk in the second half last week and the same today. When they realise that the fitness levels have to improve in this league then I think they will be serious challengers to Falkirk. What really confirms their potential for me is that they have players like Rory McAllister on the bench in reserve. On then to Fife which is well within our capabilities. Murray seems to have engendered a great spirit amongst the team and this was apparent today when a lot of sides would have thrown in the towel at half time. On another note....This is the third time I have muted the commentary on the stream as it is way out of sync. Surely something can be done before the next home game as I'm sure other viewers are doing the same.

Not to bang on about this but we seem to have decent competition for places in most areas of the park but the forward line is the weak link. Take Gallagher out as we have just now and the main strike force consists of Roy, Carrick and an inexperienced 18 year old.. I am an admirer of Carrick for what he brings to the side but can you imagine any of the top teams in our division relying on them as their main strike force. Cup or league the situation remains the same.......wouldn't be so bad if our team of center halfs were scoring regularly.

In the past couple of games or so I can see the nucleus of a side who will almost certainly be in the top half of the league at the end of the season. However, at the start of it all I said that most matches would be tight and quality in the forward line would probably decide many games. This is now starting to show big time...for the life of me I cannot understand how the club thought that they could compete with clubs who are far more potent in terms of their ability to hurt sides. We still seem to be relying on 'getting results" from set pieces and good fortune from kindly 'breaks' in the box. I for one am losing patience with it all....if the Cove game turns out to be how I think then many fans are going to be 'turning off'.

Quality won out in the end I suppose but other teams will be watching and see how easy it is to run with the ball along the box and find the net r.e Partick and now Livi. I know it was £15 pounds for the stream but having seen a few others rather than our own it seems obvious that we went for the 'basic package' and have the resultant poor coverage. Surely we have now not settled on just following the ball...I for one would pay another pound or two for properly synced commentary, human videography (with zoom) and highlights which add tremendously to the whole experience.

Have posted many times about the lack of 'natural strikers' in the side so last night's result was not unexpexted. When we meet Cove in a couple of weeks we will probably see a re-run of last nights game except for the fact that they have about three guys capable of banging in the goals. I'm afraid our front players are happy to get the ball 'on target' and hope for the best so last night was a great exapmple of that. As for Andy Ryan, I'm sure there were reasons other than money as to why he didn't come back to us. I'm also sure that it is not lost on Ian Murray and despite his 'defend from the front' poilicy he must be crying out for that 'cutting edge' that he has been going on about for two seasons!

Airdrie supporters for years now have gotten by with the hope that things will improve. We still cling on with the slightest glimmer. What is so disapponting for me this season is the disappointment of not signing a proven goalscorer and the situation where creative players are benched to make way for a defensive setup. I would still be disappointed if we were scraping draws and 1-0s against the bottom sides. Football is an entertainment business in case no-one noticed!

'The ball did not bounce favourably in the box' pretty much sums up my views. We do not have a forward line with a hint of composure and rely on a bit of luck. The last time I seen a bit of composure in the box it was from Stokes but unfortunately he did not merit a start. We did have possession and dominated for spells but unfortunately our side is set up to do exactly what Dumbarton did to us...well done Mr Duffy!

Wouldn't blame the defence too much today, this happens when you press for an equalizer with nothing upfront. Ian Murray's philosophy has been to defend from the front hence McKay and Kerr in those positions. Real trouble is that leaves very little creativity in those areas coupled with a farly impotent front line who are not really composed in front of goal. We do have a good back line for this division but today was a wake up call for the games in front of us.

Dumbarton's striker Jamie Wilson will probably go on to have a fairly good season from what I seen today. I have always had the hope that Airdrie would bring in guys like him who have 'goals in them' as a priority, although it can be a risky. We brought in Connell on loan and although it is early days we should probably have taken a punt on someone like Wilson having found the net 11 times in 23 games whilst in Australia, and 26 times in 56 appearances for Rothes in the Highland League, seems a better bet than we have at the moment. Cove Rangers game will certainly give us an idea of how our season is going to pan out.

Said it from day one when we didn't sign a proven goal scorer that we would struggle. All credit to the boys today however, they did work very hard but at the end of the day we could not hurt Dumbarton due to the number and quality of 'speculative' balls into the forwards. We have been set up as a 'counter puncher' and as said, when the other team scores first we lack the creativity in midfield and goal threat up front to do much about it. Murray will probably say that we 'didn't get the breaks' which means that we did not profit from those percentage balls into the box. Huge disappointment and unfortunately I cannot see room for improvement under Murray.

For me the issue has with Ian Murray has been his preoccupation with not losing first and foremost. We have not really had a side with a potent strike force for a while now and for me that does not bode well when we look at the other sides who are vying for promotion this season. I thought like most that Gallagher would benefit from a better creative midfield in Stokes, Sabatini and Robert but this doesn't seem to be the case so far. Ian Murray as we know likes all players who are capable of defending till the 90th minute, this sometimes procludes the gem of a striker who doesn't care to track back too often. The difference for me at the weekend in terms of the result was partick's number nine who posed a real threat and defended well in the box....we do not have that type of player at the moment and to be honest that's what I thought the club might have looked for in the summer.

Just watched Ian Murray's interview and while I agreed with a lot of what he said I picked up on his closing statement concerning the season ahead which pretty much sums things up. "If we play like we did today we will be pretty hard to beat". I'm afraid that's not what I want to hear as a fan!

The last time we played them was in the cup last year and we lost. I remember commenting then that if we had more positive and had a real go at them we would have got a result. Today was exactly the same, set up to score from set pieces and break aways...dreadful to watch. Everything for Partick today centered around Docherty...why did it take us until the second half to put him under real physical pressure?

I think our disappoinment going forward is probably downto the fact that we thought that we would see some real quality in the forward line this season (West Ham or otherwise). This is obviously the hardest part of the team to fill so I can understand the difficulty. We are at the moment sitting with attackers who by and large have not really proven themselves as a real threat to opponents. As a fan last season I was always fearfull of how players like Goodwillie, McManus and the like could cause us real problems. I don't think that could be said for any of our attacking players by opposing fans. I would be delighted to be proven wrong this season !

In a game like this and for the rest of the season we will be matched with sides who have have 'more goals' in them. Tonight Alloa played with three players who in their career so far have scored about 360 goals between them at this level. We on the other hand...........

Imagine paying a seven year old 5000 pounds to video a wedding and his was about the quality that resulted. My main worry is that the streaming is going to be a major source of revenue for the club this season and if things don't improve then the club will lose out big time. I'm sure they must know that, especially after today. If this is as close to the best Pixellot can offer then I cannot see much in the way of uptake in the coming weeks. Today the sunshine did not help but this was partly due to the system's inability to zoom into the areas of shade on the pitch. As for following the action then the club is due it's money back for it certainly does not 'follow the action'! I had major expectations after adjusting to the fact that spectator football looks likely to be gone for this season. I would hope that the management address the issues this week and give the supporters some good reason to stick with it. It is all the more galling as I think we have the makings of a great team this year so hugely disappointing today.

In my opinion Roy could easily finish the season with 15 plus goals. The main difference this year is that he will undoubtedly get better service into the box. Remember we started lest season with him out on the wing which didn't help. I'm sure people will agree also that he is a 'confidence' player and sometimes his head goes down to easily if things are not going well. He will also realise that this year is a make or break season for him in many ways. I'm confident that we'll see the best of him however.

I should have added that bringing in a goal scorer like Goddwillie is not totally about the number of goals they will bring per season. We need guys who can turn 1-1 draws into wins with a bit of quality in the forward line. I feel that this is what has made the difference for title winners in the past eg. Bobby Linn (Arbroath).

I'm fairly optomistic looking at the signings but like everyone else I think that we need to add to the forward line. Imagine if we had Goodwillie in the starting line up this season, I don't think our odds would be sitting at 14/1...... it's pretty obvious to most folks.

For me it has to be the signing of a proven goal scorer(s) in the Declan McManus mould. I don't see the present strikers being able to provide the threat up front that we need to gain promotion. Gallagher will score his plus ten as always but I don't see Ally or Dale being prolific unfortunately. Just look at the sides over the past few seasons who have been promoted, they have all been able to call on a natural finisher who wins tight games for them i.e Bobby Linn (Arbroath). The lack of goals from midfielders and defence last season was a major factor in our win ratio in evenly matched games. I would hope that our new midfield signings have goals in them. The major plus side for me this season is starting with a quality settled defence who will only go on to improve. Just give us more threat up front and I'll be happy.