By Neil Brown
April 22 2007

CLYDEBANK THISTLE 2 AS AIRDRIE 4


goals from gray(2),n pardoe and g cooper saw airdrie move into 4th place with their third away win on the bounce.

the manager made 2 changes from the side that won well at tynecastle.in came pardoe and gray and onto the bench went clarky and kenny

the first 20 minutes saw airdrie play some of their best football in a few months and sitting on a 2-1 lead.again airdrie took the game to their opponents right from the off and the passing and movement from midfield and forwards was excellent and thistle defence were struggling to handle it and it was no surprise that airdrie took the lead after 10minutes.fine passing involving 5 players saw the ball played by edgar to gray who took a touch and fired the ball into the corner of the net.however the home team hit back a couple of minutes later when slack marking found the number 7 clear and as rowan came rushing out he calmly lobbed the ball over his head and into the net for a fine finish.5 minutes later airdrie went in front with a similar goal to the first.good passing down the left found gray and his pass to capaldi saw the on form striker clear and his cutback saw the ball evade the home keeper and arrive at pardoe who finished neatly.moments later airdrie,s best move almost saw a third.quick passing and movement found the ball with edgar at the edge of the box and his neat flick inside saw pardoe run on and strike a good shot that was well saved by the keeper.after 30 minutes airdrie did make it three with big gogs burying a header into the roof of the net from a corner.the last 15 minutes however saw airdrie relax and it allowed thistle to have their best spell of the game and some worrying gaps were appearing in the away defence that almost saw the home team get back into the game.

3-1 at half time and again no changes from neilly but a message that the tempo had to be picked up again right from the start of the second half.

the first 15 minutes of the second half belonged to airdrie and it was little surprise they made it 4-1 after the hour mark.a fine run from stewart down the right saw his ball across goal met by gray and his left footed shot(again)found the bottom corner.from an airdrie point of view the last 30 minutes should have saw airdrie go on and really stretch the thistle defence but for whatever reasons the whole team basically switched off.everything about their game was slack and careless and allowed thistle to have too much of the ball and press airdrie back.fortunately the home team created little in the way of good chances and as the minutes ticked by it was looking like three more points.stewart then came of with a leg injury and kenny went on but just moments later thistle pulled a goal back from a penalty when pardoe was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the box.with 15 to go airdrie made their final substitutions with clark and kaz on for morrison and smith and within a minute kaz put gray clear but as he run through his control let him down and forced him to go round the keeper but as he went round he either slipped or took a dive cause he hit the deck without any contact.the goalie thought he dived as his reaction said it all and the ref thought so as well as a yellow card was produced(gray proclaimed his innocence after the game).the last chance saw clark through on goal but his effort was saved with little bother.final score 4-2

another good away win and keeps airdrie in contention for second place.the first half was superb with 2 quality goals and plenty of passing and movement and good performances by the midfield and strikers.however the last 30 minutes of the second saw some poor play,poor ball retention and movement.at 4-1 the guys switched off and allowed the home team to create some pressure which airdrie were able to cope with although there was one or two near things.but again it gives us things to work on and improve on for tue,s tough encounter with shawbridge

thistle are a decent side and they try and play football which is good to see and although they are having a poor run just now they showed enough in the first half of the season to deservedly keep their place in the top division and we look forward to playing them next season

team

j rowan,a stewart f burton g cooper r graham,n pardoe s smith a edgar g morrison,a gray g capaldi

k pardoe for a stewart(68),d khorasani for g morrison(75),a clark for s smith(75)

goals

a gray(10,60),n pardoe(18),g cooper(31)