Airdrie v Falkirk, 1st leg

[Ranaldo Bairn]

2 hours ago, Rhys McCabe Hype Train said:

Call me old fashioned, but I’d have thought outscoring your opponent is the absolute minimum to win a game of football?

Har de har. You know what I mean.

[Kenny_m]

10 minutes ago, David Fernández said:

Dean McMaster is definitely not the finished article by any means, he does make mistakes, give the ball away and can get out muscled from time to time, but you have to remember he's a 19 year old and it's his first season of senior football.

Yeh some of the reasons why he shouldn't be playing.

[BullyWeeStonehouse]

Mon the Diamonds

[FFC 1876]

4 minutes ago, BullyWeeStonehouse said:

Mon the Diamonds

You not got more important things to worry about?

[NUMBER 7]

No idea how this will end up. The best of Falkirk could turn up and still contrive to loose. The outcome of the league games goes for nothing, if Airdrie have a lead after tomorrow night I think they will win the tie.

[Chapelhall chap]

I have no idea what teams will get through these semi finals but I desperately hope Hamilton are not one of them. Could Alloa do a Queens Park? Can Airdrie finally escape these play off dramas with promotion? Are Falkirk destined to be still the best attended League 1 club? All to play for and after some digital trials, I have my ticket.

Obviously C'mon the Diamonds!

[Diamond72]

I think that the pressure is all on Falkirk for these two ties. Their supporters are absolutely unforgiving and this I believe transfers to the players big time. Pingu has never really gotten over the Airdrie playoff defeat with Raith at the start of his career so tomorrow should be a cracker. I will be content if Falkirk don't score  from a Henderson knock down from a cross and a cut in from the right by Kennedy. Surely we have learned from past games.

[Reggie Perrin]

52 minutes ago, Diamond72 said:

I think that the pressure is all on Falkirk for these two ties. Their supporters are absolutely unforgiving and this I believe transfers to the players big time. Pingu has never really gotten over the Airdrie playoff defeat with Raith at the start of his career so tomorrow should be a cracker. I will be content if Falkirk don't score  from a Henderson knock down from a cross and a cut in from the right by Kennedy. Surely we have learned from past games.

So the pressure is all on Falkirk is it?

Airdrie are heading for their second decade in this pit of misery.

Content to stay here?

[FFC 1876]

Intae these Trump humpers. COYB

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Diamond72 said:

I think that the pressure is all on Falkirk for these two ties. Their supporters are absolutely unforgiving and this I believe transfers to the players big time. Pingu has never really gotten over the Airdrie playoff defeat with Raith at the start of his career so tomorrow should be a cracker. I will be content if Falkirk don't score  from a Henderson knock down from a cross and a cut in from the right by Kennedy. Surely we have learned from past games.

Quite the opposite. As a collective, the Falkirk support have forgiven some outrageous shite for a good while now.

[thediamonddude]

This is the 10th playoff I’ve seen Airdrie contest in my 30+ years supporting them - we’ve lost out in the previous 9 so to say I’m not confident would be an understatement.

In all honesty though, that’s as much because of the things I’ve seen happen in playoffs. Not all that sure any team or fan can go into it with justified confidence, as form goes out the window, the ‘best’ teams don’t always make it through, and things can turn in an instant - a 2 or 3 nil lead going into a second leg, for example, will always be nice but it guarantees nothing.

The Airdrie side that went into the playoffs last season was the best I’ve seen since the early 2000s (if not since Doddie’s team in the 90s), were on a 20-odd game unbeaten run, and achieved one of the most miraculous turnarounds I think I’ll ever see in a game of football in the semi against a good Montrose side that we historically struggled against, yet still contrived to lose to a team that finished 21 points behind us. I’ll never be confident about another playoff again, as if any Airdrie team was doing it, that was the one.

All of that means I’m probably as relaxed as I’ve been going into a playoff - I want and hope that we do it but my expectations are at a point where I genuinely don’t expect to, and that’s kind of nice.

As for the game itself, as others have said, there really hasn’t been much between the sides this season and I expect the same. I think we’re very different teams but for the first time since Falkirk have been down here, the styles have cancelled each other out, meaning there’s been nothing to really separate us.

The two games at the Excelsior were far and away from as clear cut as the score lines suggested and the two at TFS were on a knife edge - Falkirk probably should have won the first and we should have knicked the second.

As for the team, for me, it pretty much picks itself - gotta go with the guys who are primarily responsible for the run of 1 defeat in 9 before the end of the season…

Rae

Watson Dycey ATS Ballantyne

McMaster

Frizzell Devenney

Gabby Gal Smithy

If we win 8-0 tomorrow night, then I might start to feel comfortable for the second leg…maybe.

[BullyWeeStonehouse]

4 hours ago, FFC 1876 said:

You not got more important things to worry about?

See you next season! 

[Bairnardo]

The playoff final should be a single game at a neutral venue. Either after the 2 legged semis in the EFL style, or Hamilton flushed immediately in a 2 up 2 down, with 2nd and 3rd having a real cup final.

Imagine how much we'd all be shiting ourselves if it was settled tonight rather then hoping we put ourselves in an OK position to try and get 3 more games....

[lanky_ffc]

Any chance of PPV tonight? Haven't seen anything mentioned on either club's Twitter.

[*marko*]

6 minutes ago, lanky_ffc said:

Any chance of PPV tonight? Haven't seen anything mentioned on either club's Twitter.

https://www.airdriefc.com/2223-news/230507/dtvlive%3A-airdrieonians-vs-falkirk

[Guest]

We lost to Airdrie last August. 
Although it finished 4-0 we were well in the game until the sending off. Added to that we were still getting the side together. 
In the three other games we have been much better than that game. We should have comfortably won the 1-1 game, we bossed the 3-1 game up there after the first 20 min and should have been out of sight in the first half of the 2-2 game. 
For those reasons we should have nothing to fear but Airdire’s front 3 plus Frizzell are very dangerous and if they are allowed to play they will hurt us. 
They can be got at though as they lack pace at the back and are very open at times. 
Difficult tie for both sides who are both better going forward than defensively. 

[AJ77]

3 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

We lost to Airdrie last August. 
Although it finished 4-0 we were well in the game until the sending off. Added to that we were still getting the side together. 
In the three other games we have been much better than that game. We should have comfortably won the 1-1 game, we bossed the 3-1 game up there after the first 20 min and should have been out of sight in the first half of the 2-2 game. 
For those reasons we should have nothing to fear but Airdire’s front 3 plus Frizzell are very dangerous and if they are allowed to play they will hurt us. 
They can be got at though as they lack pace at the back and are very open at times. 
Difficult tie for both sides who are both better going forward than defensively. 

Don't recall anyone getting sent off that game?

[Bairnardo]

I can just remember being absolutely seething at the refereeing incompetence in that game giving a corner that was clearly a GK, from which they scored. From that point on, our players were in full on Sheerin/Rennie mode with Aidan Nesbitt and Stevie Hetherington doing a disappearing act that would baffle Penn and Teller in the second half. 

Christ iv just had a flashback to the rage I felt at our team after that game 

[Hartleys18/19Army]

If the on form Falkirk show up then I don't see why we can't pinch a win. I do have big concerns though of more calamitous defending in these pressure games. We could quite easily come away from here 3-0 down, tie over.

 

 

 

 

[AJ77]

Avoid defeat and i'll be happy enough, weirdly I'm more confident of getting a result away from home rather than at home.