By C.McFarlane
April 6 2006

AS AIRDRIE 1 SHAWBRIDGE 5


airdrie fell to their heaviest league defeat of the season with a disappointing defensive display at central park.

2 changes from the side last week saw cooper and walker missing with clark and pardoe coming back into the team

the game started with both sides pressing for an early goal and for 25 minutes there was nothing in the game.pardoe had an effort saved following good build up down the left then clarky had a half chance knocked wide.shawbridge had chances as well through the number 9 and number 8 but they took a knock when their number 10 had to go off through injury which left them with no subs.however the change seemed to improve their play and they took the lead following a corner when their midfielder got away from kenny and his shot deflected off pardoe for 1-0.5 minutes later it was 2-0 when a long ball through the middle cleared the centre backs and as the ball bounced through johnny wasn,t brave enough in clearing the ball from the shawbridge striker and took his eye off the ball in the process which left the player with a simple task of putting the ball into the empty net.the last 10 minutes saw both teams create little in the way of goalmouth action.

the first 20 minutes of the second half saw airdrie have their best spell in the game.chances fell to gray,kenny and edgar and shawbridge were under pressure but despite this they always looked dangerous and were quick on the attack with the number 9 and 12 looking lively and they had a couple of good chances themselves.airdrie had a chance to put themselves back into the game when they were awarded a penalty when clark was brought down.however our regular penalty taker sonic had his effort saved well by the keeper and gray knocked the rebound past the post.10 minutes after this shaws made it 3 when the number 11 had a fine run down the left and after going by gordie finished with a neat effort over the keeper from a tight angle.airdrie kept going and with 15 minutes to go got one back when edgar rifled high into the net following a couple of minutes of pressure.however any notion that airdrie could get back into the game were dashed 2 minutes later when the ref awarded shaws a penalty which shouldn,t have been given as their player slipped in the box.however the ref deemed it a foul and,despite not booking rg,gave the decision.the number 9 slotted easily into the bottom corner for 4-1.with less than 10 minutes left airdrie,s heads were down but gray forced the keeper to pull of a great save.shaws did make it 5 when a long ball from the keeper saw the number 12 clean through on goal and he easily rounded johnny for a final score of 5-1

first of all credit to shaws who,in my opinion,are a good team who like to play football and have some fine players.they were well worth their win today although i think 5-1 flattered them a bit.at 2-0 we had chances to get back into the game and if the penalty had been scored the game might have changed.but like i say shaws deserved their victory and we wish them well in the defence of the strathclyde cup.
for airdrie we created a few chances and 2 or 3 were real good opportunities.the penalty was a big miss but that still doesn,t let go of the fact that we gave away 2 or 3 bad goals from poor marking,ball watching and our keeper not being brave enough with the second goal.johnny had some fine saves in the game but when our defence isn,t at its best or strongest he has to step up to the plate and take ball,men and anyone else when making that clearance.hopefully he will learn in the future.yet again their was a distinct lack of communication between our players and 3 or 4 times we had 2 players going for the one ball which is totally unacceptable.once maybe but its happening 3 or 4 times in every game and some players have to start talking or we will keep having this problem time and time again.we have 4 games left and it will be down to the players and management to ensure we keep performing despite having little to play for in terms of winning/relegation for example.we just have to get on with it hopefully starting next week against shettleston at home

team

rowan,hendrie,graham,burton,drummond,n pardoe,k pardoe,edgar,clark,gray,atkin

arbuckle for hendrie,trenchie for atkin,s graham for clark,m johnstone