Diamondonians

 

Promoted Airdrie are sitting in fifth place in the table, just below the play-off places with former Caley Jag Nikolay Todorov getting amongst the goals and he will provide a big test for our central defence. We have found Airdrie a difficult proposition at times this season but we did win the last home encounter against them. Our off-field problems are out in the open now after a meeting with fans on Wednesday evening. See the responses below from the CTO forum page 16 onwards. Suffice to say it is worth a lot of money and it does have a massive part to play in the future of our club.

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Match/Ticket Info

Battery Farm - CTO Topic

Chairmans Response after meeting

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Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	9	5	0	4	14	12	+2
Away	8	2	2	4	9	17	-8
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	17	7	2	8	23	29	-6

Only this season's games are relevant as prior to the 2-3 defeat in the League Cup group stages, our previous game against Airdrie was in 2002 when a Martin Bavidge strike was the only goal of the game. Not only that, it keeps our record thrashing of 0 - 6 out of sight as though it never happened. (just for the record, Owen Coyle scored a hat-trick, Neil McFarlane planted a header behind Nicky Walker, Lee Gardiner drove in from the edge of the box and Paul Armstrong ended the rout five minutes before the end. Gubbed!)

This season's Competitive Meetings

0 - 2 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 3 (H)

Not much success for us this season against the Diamonds although we did win the last home game against them thanks to a superb finish from the long gone Spoony: FULL TIME: 1 - 0. The fabulous execution of his goal was a great introduction for David Wotherspoon but for me the Man of the Match and new version of Bobby Mann was Nikola Ujdur. The Aussie defender is solid, strolled through the game unflustered and can pick a pass. Good graft in midfield but Sheridan and Big Harry need some work done. Shaw picked up a booking at the end when Big Dunc sent him back onto the pitch to get treatment.

Last Time Out

Inverness extended their unbeaten run to four games (3xD & 1xW) with an excellent result at Cappielow that ended Morton's 14 game Championship undefeated run. Clinical strikes from Billy Mckay, his 110th goal for the club, and a first from Sean McAllister (video below) ensured we grabbed all three points in a crucial game at the bottom end of the table given Arbroath's unexpected win over Raith Rovers the night before. Last Five: L D D D W 

Airdrieonians played twice this week. A 1-1 draw last Saturday at home to Queens Park was followed in midweek by a stunning 2-0 win at East End Park. Mason Hancock scored the leveler against QP with two former Dunfermline players Nikolay Todorov and Gabby McGill (video below) sinking their old team.

Manager Rhys McCabe said on BBC Sport:  "We knew coming here it was about playing the percentages really well, doing the basics really well. We never really felt in danger towards the latter stages of the game." Last Five: L L W D W 

 

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Only four games this weekend as Morton are on Scottish Cup duty 1. Dundee Utd 27 16 7 4 51 17 55 2. Raith Rovers 26 15 6 5 46 36 51 3. Partick Thistle 26 10 9 7 51 45 39 4. Morton 27 10 7 10 34 31 37 5. Airdrieonians 26 10 5 11 28 30 35 6. Dunfermline 27 8 8 11 30 36 32 7. Ayr United 27 9 5 13 38 50 32 8. Queens Park 27 8 7 12 39 45 31 9. Inverness CT 27 7 9 11 32 32 30 10. Arbroath 26 6 5 15 28 55 23

        SATURDAY 9TH MARCH

1. Dundee Utd v Arbroath fc  
2.  Inverness CT v Airdrieonians
3.  Queen's Park v Partick Thistle
4. Raith Rovers v Dunfermline

Latest Team News

Inverness beat the injury woes last weekend to take all three points at Morton. New loan signing Samson Lawal from Livingston remained on the bench.  We have a number of long term casualties in Charlie Gilmour, Luis Longstaff, Chilokoa-Mullen, Harry Lodovica and Lewis Nicolson. Roddy MacGregor, Nathan Shaw and Morgan Boyes were shorter term injuries. Austin Samuels has yet to be unleashed after his return to the bench and the similarly named Alex Samuel has been through the wars but has continued to feature despite a broken hand and numerous stitches about his body. He's a warrior. A number of players have also been carrying injuries so we will have to wait and see what Big Dunc is saying.

Dunc's Update: Sean McAllister out for at least a couple of weeks (thigh). Boyes and Ujdur might make the bench. Dunc's loon (Cameron) might be a signing option👁️ . And surprise surprise, even our trialists are picking up knocks aren't they!

 

Airdrie had a good week picking up four points. Calum Gallagher and Nikolay Todorov are their top scorers this season so far with seven goals each. Despite that, they are the lowest scoring side in the Championship with only 28 goals, four less than Inverness. Defences are similar with Airdrie two goals better off although they have played one game less than us.

Airdrie team v Pars:

Rae

 

Megwa   Watson   Fordyce   Hancock

 

McCabe

 

Telfer   Frizzell   McStravick (McMaster 72)

 

McGill (Donnell 66)   Todorov (Gallagher 72)

 

Subs Not Used: Hutton; Lyall, Dunlop, O'Connor, Taylor-Sinclair

 

11 hours ago, ymip said:

Usual 3hr drive to game, 90 joylesss minutes of football, fifty quid parking ticket, 3 hr drive home. See y'all same time next week for more of the same dross. 

TBF we’ve been well warned about not parking on the verge.

However, I wish the same attention was paid to parking on double yellow lines on the road at full time as cars park to pick people up. It is a hazard and causes chaos. 

59 minutes ago, Robert said:

TBF we’ve been well warned about not parking on the verge.

However, I wish the same attention was paid to parking on double yellow lines on the road at full time as cars park to pick people up. It is a hazard and causes chaos. 

Can’t see what anybody can do except move them on and they’ll just move along the road a bit. Surely they’re not parking, just waiting which is different ?

Btw I picked up a £100 fine (reduced to £50) at Tannadice this season. They’ve set up an exclusion zone around the two stadia on match days as residents were complaining. So watch out for the signage when we’re back there on the 23rd.

On 3/10/2024 at 10:41 AM, old caley girl said:

If I was a conspiracy theorist I'd wonder why the Council parking attendants made an appearance yesterday? 

They appeared also to be aware that there were potentially rich pickings from a large crowd at the Half Marathon and were booking people there - including, apparently, in the Archive Centre car park.

I wonder how many of the several dozen (or more) drivers who don't park at the stadium to save themselves giving a fiver to the club have been writing to councillors demanding they back a project required to support the club because they're broke?

38 minutes ago, STFU said:

I wonder how many of the several dozen (or more) drivers who don't park at the stadium to save themselves giving a fiver to the club have been writing to councillors demanding they back a project required to support the club because they're broke?

Not the same thing at all. I  don't park at the stadium because I think £5 is ridiculous and also getting out of the casr park can be time consuming.  It's also easier for me to get home by parking in the Longman.

Happy to give the club money buying food, merchandise etc but draw the line at paying £90 minimum  a season for parking. 

32 minutes ago, Huisdean said:

Not the same thing at all. I  don't park at the stadium because I think £5 is ridiculous and also getting out of the casr park can be time consuming.  It's also easier for me to get home by parking in the Longman.

Happy to give the club money buying food, merchandise etc but draw the line at paying £90 minimum  a season for parking. 

Agreed. My thoughts exactly..

Tbh they should be closing stadium road between the roundabout and along to under the bridge except for official car parking, disabled and bus access. The speed cars pass both before and after matches with pedestrians about its got to be luck nobody has been injured or worse.

29 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Tbh they should be closing stadium road between the roundabout and along to under the bridge except for official car parking, disabled and bus access. The speed cars pass both before and after matches with pedestrians about its got to be luck nobody has been injured or worse.

Or better yet, improve the shuttle service. Absolute mystery whether it runs prior to the match and quite a lot of the time the bus back is rammed. Advertise it better, make it more frequent and increase capacity then we won't have to deal with being sat for donkeys trying to get out and people won't need to risk getting flattened on the walk back.

The car parks fine as is (well, for its intended purpose anyway, not the condition of it), but everyones become overly reliant on it because, like most places in the HC area, the bus service is hoaching and/or overpriced.

On the parking issue, on a fine day I park away, legally, from the Stadium and enjoy the craic on the way back to my car and, by then the traffic is easier and the way home is less stressful.   On wet or dire/dreich days I park in the home car park, go early, chose my space carefully (avoiding potholes, puddles etc) and pay my £5 to support ICT Community Trust and the great work Craig and all his associates do, which is largely not advertised.  It’s no great deal to wait in a queue to go home whilst listening to drivel on radio Scotland! 

Partick Thistle v Raith Rovers live on BBC Scotland now.

37 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Partick Thistle v Raith Rovers live on BBC Scotland now.

Rovers currently one up, Partick now only 9 points and 5 goals better off than us. Certainly gives Morton some hope.

13 minutes ago, Satan said:

Rovers currently one up, Partick now only 9 points and 5 goals better off than us. Certainly gives Morton some hope.

Gives us some hope if we can start scoring goals at home 

Just now, IBM said:

Gives us some hope if we can start scoring goals at home 

Indeed. Fine,fine margins this season. Feeling this will go right to the last game.

9 hours ago, tm4tj said:

Partick Thistle v Raith Rovers live on BBC Scotland now.

Poor and lethargic first half. Second was better. I though PT were unfortunate not to grab a last minute point.