Airdrie vs Montrose

[Diamond1924]

These tend to be pretty mental games. 7-3 airdrie

[mo83]

Away win

[AJ77]

44 minutes ago, mo83 said:

Away win

Feeling optimistic are we

[AndyDD]

Must win for the visitors, really is their last chance to force a late push for the playoffs you'd think, so reason to be wary. 

Concentrate on ourselves, play to our capacity and it's there to be won, definitely. Fully expect the mentality to be spot on, they won't take it for granted and will go out to attack the game. 

5 wins on the bounce would be outstanding. 

[David Fernández]

Airdrie vs Montrose games have been bonkers in recent times, the last 4 games between the sides there's been a whopping 26 goals.

Pressure on us to get the win as we have the hardest fixtures in the run in.

It would be classic Airdrie to score 100 goals in league 1 and still bottle the play off final

 

[broomiesniper]

won't manage to be in attendance for this one, may be a blessing as the past 2 visits have been a health hazard for Mo fans

with Airdrie scoring for fun at the moment I can see this being another high scoring affair in the favour of Airdrie.  our season has more or less finished with minimal chance of appearing in the playoffs, hopefully I'm wrong and come 5pm tomorrow I'm regretting the choice of not travelling

[Chapelhall chap]

Gone for continuance of home form and a win , of the nervy kind.

Lots of goals as mentioned earlier but I think it might be like last week. Maybe we'll have shooting boots on and whilst welcome, I'll be happy to keep ahead of all the possible play off sides. 

Anything could happen going by the events of this season but it would be good to go to Falkirk with a narrow gap. 

[Mr November]

On 06/04/2023 at 11:19, David Fernández said:

Airdrie vs Montrose games have been bonkers in recent times, the last 4 games between the sides there's been a whopping 26 goals.

Pressure on us to get the win as we have the hardest fixtures in the run in.

It would be classic Airdrie to score 100 goals in league 1 and still bottle the play off final

 

I’m still recovering from the 6-4 game. Even before that we had a 4-1, 2-2 and then the 1-0 we don’t need to talk about. Ridiculous stuff given I seemed to always lose 1-0 to Montrose in the games before that.

[ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds]

ATS to score a birthday winner would do for me

[Rhys McCabe Hype Train]

Easy.

Montrose have had some regression.

[Brummo]

On 07/04/2023 at 13:31, broomiesniper said:

won't manage to be in attendance for this one, may be a blessing as the past 2 visits have been a health hazard for Mo fans

with Airdrie scoring for fun at the moment I can see this being another high scoring affair in the favour of Airdrie.  our season has more or less finished with minimal chance of appearing in the playoffs, hopefully I'm wrong and come 5pm tomorrow I'm regretting the choice of not travelling

I didn't travel either and share your lack of regret. The fact we now have a goal difference of -2 tells its own story. Crumb of comfort: although we are not getting results, according to BBC stats, we were still in the game until the second goal went in on 88 minutes. Our shots on target stats however are in "canna hit a coo on the erse wi a banjo" territory. This may be in part down to Airdrie's defending but it feels like we are not as big a threat of late than earlier in the season. Since last season's playoff debacle, I had hoped we could kick on but the sad fact is that while Airdrie are now an improved team since then, we have arguably gone backwards. Players brought in e.g. McAllister have not delivered as we would have hoped and we have lost good loan players and others e.g. Cammy and Cammy. As feared this has been a much tougher season with a high proportion of full time and hybrid clubs. If it hadn't been for Clyde and Peterhead being cannon fodder for the rest, we could have been been on the wrong end of the playoffs. Really hoping SP can see out this season with some wins as well as decent performances. After so many disappointments in past promotion playoffs, maybe not being in them is a bit of respite. Still feel disappointed though. It would be good to finish the season with a positive goal difference. Hoping we can turn a corner rather than tailspin ahead of next season.

[David Fernández]

Great victory again for us, felt 3-0 flattered us today as I thought for the majority of the game there wasn't much between the teams. I'm not too sure why Petrie made a triple sub when it was only 1-0, that seemed a bit odd especially as Montrose were well in the game. The difference was that our subs impacted the game today, I've been critical of Telfer and McGregor but Telfer brought a calmness in possession when he came on and it's great to see McGregor get his first goal. The defence is night and day in comparision to where we were 6/7 weeks ago. For me either Cammy B or ATS were MOTM, disappointed it wasn't ATS as it's his B day, other than that no complaints from me.

 

 

[Kenny_m]

Probably Cammy Ballantyne's best game for us today and a deserved mom although his fellow defenders were also excellent.

Never thought we really got into our stride today although Telfer had definite impact when he came on showing that there is real competition for the midfield berths when you add in Stanway & McCabe. Devenny was ok but I'm sure there's a lot more to come from him.

 

[Mr November]

Think @David Fernández and @Kenny_mare both spot on. Quite a disjointed performance going forward, with a number of attacks petering out due to players taking too many touches (Callum Smith was the main culprit) but a comfortable win in the end. The relief after McGill’s goal was something else, as it was starting to feel like it wasn’t our day going forward, but after that I felt the win was never in doubt. Both teams could have scored a few more in the first half in particular but I felt Airdrie did enough to deserve the win overall, even if the scoreline flattered us a bit in the end. I agree about Montrose’s triple sub too, I’m not sure if Petrie wanted more physicality by bringing on Watson and McAllister but Airdrie controlled the midfield from then on and never looked in danger.

As said above, Ballantyne was outstanding, winning his battles defensively and looking a real threat driving forward. I’ve been critical of him but he’s looked much better since moving to left back in recent weeks. ATS was once again the calmest man on the park and that seems to bring out the best in everyone around him. 

Montrose seem to be in a strange situation. They’ve had what seems like the same squad since they came up, with a couple of additions and departures every summer, and last seasons play-off might have been the last chance for this cycle. The McAllister gamble hasn’t really worked out and while none of them were disastrous today, the likes of Dillon, Masson, Webster, Whatley, Watson etc. are all another year older and not quite at the levels they were a couple of seasons ago. No one can deny that Petrie has done a great job at Montrose but I think the next couple of seasons will be a big test for him. He might need to replace six or seven key players over that time, something he hasn’t really been able to do so far, and I’m not convinced Ryan Williamson playing 15 games a season will be the answer.

[Chapelhall chap]

It was as tight as I thought and Montrose made a game of it throughout but lacked the finishing edge we showed at the late spell. 

Close things early on at both ends while we did a lot of direct play as did Montrose. Things did not quite run for Smith today although he did his usual hard working shift. It didn't surprise me when he was subbed.

Montrose suffered from those big substitutions and McAllister never really tricked our defence, where ATS was calmness personified and Fordyce was solid and accurate, back to his best form 

That was clearly Ballantyne s best game while Frizzel finally settled my nerves with a sublime goal. Given I'd predicted 2-0 I'd have been delighted if wee Lloyd had blown seconds earlier but Telfers pass and Lewis's finish did have me cheering.

Good day with the other results apart from QOS and here we go again. 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Chapelhall chap
Spelling

[diamondman]

A tighter game than the score suggests. 

Montrose could have been ahead when the effort from the corner struck the post. Conversely their keeper made an excellent stop from Gabby McGill after he was set up by Smith. Hoped we could score in first 45 but it didn't come about.

 

Second half we had efforts until Gabby's clinical finish. Montrose's mass substitution was  a concern but came to little. McAllister looks to be a spent force now. Glad to win out in the end

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by diamondman

[Scorge]

20 minutes ago, Mr November said:

Montrose seem to be in a strange situation. They’ve had what seems like the same squad since they came up, with a couple of additions and departures every summer, and last seasons play-off might have been the last chance for this cycle. The McAllister gamble hasn’t really worked out and while none of them were disastrous today, the likes of Dillon, Masson, Webster, Whatley, Watson etc. are all another year older and not quite at the levels they were a couple of seasons ago. No one can deny that Petrie has done a great job at Montrose but I think the next couple of seasons will be a big test for him. He might need to replace six or seven key players over that time, something he hasn’t really been able to do so far, and I’m not convinced Ryan Williamson playing 15 games a season will be the answer.

Wasn't there today but unsurprised by most of this. The sqaud isn't bad at all, but has been imbalanced most of the season without a RB and the middle of the park has been inconsistent, hence McAllister not getting everything on a plate. Mathematically we're still alive but realistically our season was done last Saturday and IMO it's now 5 friendlies for some of the fringe players (Milne, Whatley etc) in the last chance saloon to get a deal. At this moment in time, I'd be punting most of them, and I'm still not convinced by McAllister TBH.

Wouldn't mind seeing you lot go up, especially if it's at Lolkirk's expense.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Scorge

[diamondman]

8 minutes ago, Scorge said:

Wouldn't mind seeing you lot go up, especially if it's at Lolkirk's expense.

Statistically challenging proposition advanced there, sadly. 

[The Gable Endie]

I don’t think McAllister was a bad signing but it was pointless bringing him in if he has no bloody service! It also looks like we splurged our budget to bring him in and maybe is a reason we didn’t bring as many players as we should have. Personally a rebuild is needed and we could be looking at getting rid of 9 players. I would get rid of Lennox(one of the shittest keepers I have ever seen), Whately (Played out of position half the time but not good enough), Allan (Highland league at best, slow donkey), Milne (had high hopes but his career has gone off a cliff after his FT adventure), Callaghan (Should’ve left yonks ago), Dillon (Arguably our best player but doesn’t have the legs anymore), Masson ( Offers nothing going forward), Watson (Too old), Gardyne (Again too old). We have sleepwalked into this situation and I do hope we freshen up the squad a lot even if we do have to rely on loans.

[Diamonds are Forever]

Montrose definitely don't look quite the same as previous seasons, however I think a bigger factor for them is the strength in the top half of the league is far greater this year. Last season QP finished 4th with 51 points (6 points ahead of 5th). Alloa already have that this season with 4 games to play and will need at least 2, probably 3 more wins to get in the play-offs. Whoever finishes 6th this season is very likely to finish with more points than QP did last season in 4th place.

Falkirk and Queen of the South (eventually) have shunted Montrose down a couple of places as you'd expect with their budgets. Alloa are probably a good comparator so finishing a bit behind them is evidence of a slight decline, but I think it's been exaggerated by the strength in the league this year compared to previous seasons.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Diamonds are Forever