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Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️


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12 hours ago, moses1924 said:

I was thinking this although I dont think we would beat county over two legs especially as we would have had an extra two games against thistle. Hope Raith turn it round but cant see it now, would that be 4 seasons in a row Murray has lost a playoff?

I don't think that we would have beaten Ross County, as they are a big strong team, and defensively better organized than we are, but think that we could have put up a better show and given them more to think about than Raith did.

Also we don't have the resources to survive in the premier league.

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2 hours ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

I think you could make an argument that his poor record in finals is actually because in some respects his semi-final record is quite poor, in the sense that he always makes hard work of it against weaker teams. In all 3 of them he's been the 2nd placed team and played teams who finished below him, often by a large margin. And in all of them required extra-time and/or penalties to progress, and were all 'emotional rollercoasters'. Thinking back to the Cove and Montrose games, or even the Partick match last week, his teams end up expending a huge amount of energy just reaching the final and two of them ended up being celebrated with pitch invasions (only reason Cove game didn't was it was during Covid!). The nature of the play-offs is always that you won't get easy games, but given that he has always faced inferior sides in the semi-finals he should have been able to get a dull, sterile 2-0 win in some of them that didn't cause them to expend huge amounts of emotional and physical energy - which has then cost him in the final.

Raith may well turn it around and disprove this, but like his last 2 attempts it looks likely that they've expended too much too soon to get through the semis and then might fall short in the final.

Yeah that’s fair. I suppose ultimately a play-off is all about getting over the line but as you say, the dramatic way his teams have to go about winning semi-finals definitely has an effect on the finals. 

I suppose a lot of it comes down to Murray as a manager too. Given time he’s very good at building a cohesive dressing room with a great team spirit, which can be enough to pull out some big performances when under pressure, but he’s pretty limited tactically and struggles to win big games that way. I think we saw that a bit last night, and during some of our games against them this season too, as for all Raith finished strongly there wasn’t much of a clear tactical plan other than hoofing it to Hamilton while the rest of the team were stuck between pressing and sitting in an organised block.

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56 minutes ago, Mr November said:

Yeah that’s fair. I suppose ultimately a play-off is all about getting over the line but as you say, the dramatic way his teams have to go about winning semi-finals definitely has an effect on the finals. 

I suppose a lot of it comes down to Murray as a manager too. Given time he’s very good at building a cohesive dressing room with a great team spirit, which can be enough to pull out some big performances when under pressure, but he’s pretty limited tactically and struggles to win big games that way. I think we saw that a bit last night, and during some of our games against them this season too, as for all Raith finished strongly there wasn’t much of a clear tactical plan other than hoofing it to Hamilton while the rest of the team were stuck between pressing and sitting in an organised block.

 

Obviously you need to get through and he did that so I probably sound overly harsh, but in the play-offs there's more to it as it's not like a cup where there is 4 weeks between each round. In play-offs making heavy weather of a tie has a direct impact on the final. The Cove semi-final was always going to be close as there wasn't much between us. But we finished 13 points ahead of Montrose and had just been on a 22 game unbeaten run, we should not have needed a once in a lifetime comeback to beat them and for me that caught up with us in the final where we were really poor in the 1st leg and ran out of steam in the 2nd. As amazing as that comeback was, I think that's part of why we lost the final. That and Simon Murray...

As you say I have/had little faith in him in big games where he seems to just rely on chaos to get a result. Raith still have a chance though so maybe he'll prove me wrong.

 

2 hours ago, moses1924 said:

Think there's a lot to suppor that, when we got up last year we had th semi final won by half time in the leg and although we still had to work it was much less than the montrose games the year before. 

 

That's what I think, it's no coincidence that our one success came when the semi-final was won at a canter, we'd subbed our best players off after 70 minutes and there was no over-celebrating at the end. That meant in the final we were able to keep going right to the end of the 90 minutes in the 2nd leg and then ET.

 

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Genuinely shocked by that. Hard to overstate how important Fordyce has been in the last five years. Pretty much 8/10 minimum every week and often even higher than that. Someone you could always count on to rise for the big occasions. He very much held the defence together in his first couple of seasons and has always been a real leader. An Airdrie team without Fordyce or Gallagher will be a strange sight.

Really interested to see where he goes next. Management? One last much better offer from elsewhere?

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Think that news today now adds importance to getting a list of who we have signed up etc for next season.  What a servant he’s been though, genuinely gutted.

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12 minutes ago, Mr November said:

Fordyce is away! Did not see that one coming at all. A huge loss on and off the pitch. 

Wow, me neither and don't like the sound of that and of course the rumour mill will go into overdrive with regards to Rhys.

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2 minutes ago, Diamonds_Are_Forever said:

Stirling Albion player /manager role maybe but can’t see him going part time 

He’s a barber thru livi way so wouldn’t be surprised to see him going part time, sore one for us nonetheless.

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Callum Fordyce played a massive role in where we are as a club today. I'm shocked to see that he's leaving and I did not expect this at all.

What an unbelievable servant he's been to Airdrie, it'll be strange not seeing him there but he leaves with my best wishes, I'm delighted he's been inducted into the hall of fame.

Interesting to see what happens when we get the squad update now, slightly more nervous for it than I initially was.

A huge loss both on an off the pitch! 

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Don’t know what to say. That’s a shocker. Gutted. Been a colossus at the back during our most successful period in the last 20 years. Was the best centre-half in League 1 and has been excellent in the Championship. Guaranteed to show up every week and even more so for the big games. Will always remember his goal in the Falkirk home leg, and I believe he was the mind behind our set pieces. 

A big loss on and off the park. An Airdrie team without Gal and Fordyce. A sad day! All the best to him. Another deserved hall of famer. 

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