By N.Brown
February 4 2007

GREENHILLS 5 AS AIRDRIE 1

Greenhill’s completed the double over Airdrie in the league with a deserved, but flattering score line, on a dull overcast day. For the first time this year Airdrie had everyone, apart from Rowan, available for selection. Airdrie made 4 changes to the side which lost in the Scottish Cup 3 weeks ago with Hendrie, Burton, Morrison and Smith in for Rowan, Stewart, Khorasani and Gray.
Airdrie stated well in the first 5 minutes by pressing the home team but from nothing suddenly found themselves losing 2 goals in the space of a minute. First Burton failed to clear his lines and his attempted clearance fell to the Greenhill’s player whose shot beat Hendrie from 15 yards. Feeling sorry for themselves Airdrie promptly lost a second from their own kick off. A returned ball to Smith from Morrison was passed straight to a Greenhill’s player and with the Airdrie defence all over the place a quick pass gave the striker plenty of time to fire into the net from 18 yards. However after another dodgy 5 minutes Airdrie went on to dominate the next 25. Good play form Clark and Capaldi, who was roasting the number 4, created a few good chances and the home keeper pulled of 2 fine saves from Clark and Kenny Pardoe then Cooper had a header cleared off the line. A couple of great blocks by the home defence kept the score at 2-0. Clark fired just wide after good play down the right and Greenhill’s were restricted to a couple of efforts but Hendrie had little to do during this spell. But as luck would have it 5 minutes before half time Greenhill’s made it 3-0. A soft free kick awarded against Graham saw a fine strike by the home player fly past Hendrie and in off the post. A big setback for Airdrie after working themselves into the game.

Second half saw Burton replaced by Gray as Airdrie went to a 3-4-3 with Neil Pardoe, Ross Graham and Cooper as the back 3 and Gray upfront with Clark and Capaldi as Airdrie looked to get back into the game. But within a matter of minutes it was 4-0, a ball into the middle of the Airdrie defence should have been dealt with by Cooper but his late shout meant Neil Pardoe was unable to get out the way and as Pardoe stretched to header it clear could only help it on to the Greenhill’s striker who nipped in and rounded Hendrie for an easy finish. At 4-0 you either chuck the towel in or you keep working trying to get a goal back, fortunately Airdrie kept battling away and tried to create chances but were leaving themselves exposed at the back but Greenhill’s never took full advantage and were quite happy to keep what they had got. Thomson then came on for Kenny Pardoe to try and get behind the home defence but didn’t have much joy. Airdrie had a lot of the ball in the second half but created few opportunities although the effort was there. With 20 to go it was 5-0 although it is hard to describe as this reporter turned away only to look round and see the home player header into the net with the keeper and defence standing still. By some accounts the ball was out of play and should have been a throw in to Airdrie but the ref never gave anything and Greenhill’s played on and, with the away team standing still, the cross was headed into the net. A lesson to always play to the whistle. With 10 to go Airdrie finally got the goal their play deserved. A quick free kick from Smith found the Greenhill’s defence sleeping for the first time in the second half because they were waiting for the refs whistle to go. However he allowed it to be taken quickly and Capaldi rounded off a fine performance with a good strike although it was only a consolation. The game finished with no further efforts from either side.

In general play the home side deserved to win although Airdrie created as many chances but credit to the home team who took full advantage of Airdrie’s mistakes and they defended well in the second half and allowed Airdrie very few attempts on goal and will be up at the top end of the league at the end of the year. For Airdrie that is 8 goals we have lost to Greenhill’s and at least 6 of them have been shocking goals to lose. But losing stupid goals has been a thorn in our past 3 seasons and yet we continue to lose bad goals. However in the 25 minute spell in the first half we created plenty of opportunities and with a bit of luck could have had a couple of goals and at 4-0 in the second half kept battling away when it would have been easy to chuck it but losing bad goals is tough going and we have to cut out the mistakes if we want to achieve things this year especially against the better sides in the league. At least there is always next week and hopefully things can be improved.

Team

Hendrie
N.Pardoe Cooper Burton R.Graham
K.Pardoe Edgar Smith Morrison
Clark Capaldi
Subs
Gray for Burton(45)
Thompson for K Pardoe(70)
Khorasani for Morrison(80)
Stewart
S.Graham