Airdrie Report

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Have to say that I was impressedd by the stadium - easy parking, got away easily and home fer 8 - undoubtedly becos of the paltry crowd of under a 1000 - and 200 of them were us !!

Great wee bar under the main stand - isnt it great when ya can sit down in comfort, watch the games on the telly, sup the last drops at 2.55, walk twenty yards an pay yerselves in !! But what a waste of a great stadium and what a dire home support.

SMILEYMOMETER:

ESSON :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: MOM as he basically won us a point. No chance with the goal - showed his usual energy and urgency - marshalled the defence - and a match saving penalty save.

ROSSCOE :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: It is evident that TB has put a leash on Rosscoe and I dont think that it is a good thing - he certainly appeared reluctant to go too far forward today but there again we dont have a midfielder to cover - he looked safer and more energetic when Proctor came on.

GOLLY :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: Really sufferred with having Eagle in front of him. He also had a very pacy wee winger to deal with. But he looks fit enuff and is deffo a more reliable option than Jimmy but has his recovery mode.

BULVITIS :thumb04: :thumb04: Bad day at the office - at fault fer the goal - not sure if it was him or Granty at the penalty. He looked competent 80% of the time but looked rather unsure and suspect fer the other 20%

GRANTY :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: Best of the outfield players. Showed urgency throughout and even forayed forward - and even down the wing in the second half.

EAGLE :thumb01n: :019: Is too lightweight and looked totally lost at times today - needs hoofing quickly.

STRATFORD As above - he offered zilch. His distribution is dire and he positioned himself mainly in no mans land and didnt play in a defensive midfield holding position.

COX :thumb04: :thumb04: Suffered as the midfield quartet was ineffectual but when he did get pace appeared to always want to play it square instead of looking for the front men.

HAYES :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: Does he have pace off the mark or what - but was played far too deep and had to track back too much. Would love to see him wide, twenty yards from goals and taking on the full back. A bit fortunate with the finish through the keepers legs but he did try.

FORAN :thumb04: Is this the same player as last year. I know that he got little support and little supply but he was lackadaisical from the off and he appeared to go in to third gear in the second half. He really needs a goal. Still he did make the goal with ten seconds of the most effort he put in during the game. If he put as much effort into hassling as he did whingeing things may have been different.

SANCHEZ Like Foran did not get the supply or the support but is also a lightweight who tries to be a bit too fancy at times.

PROCTOR :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: Surely must at least replace Eagle although I would love to see him in the holding midfield position.

ROONEY :thumb04: :thumb04: :thumb04: Possibly should have been on from the start - IMHO he changed the pattern as he was all movement, all bustle and all effort.

BARROWMAN Lets just say that he didnt have time to impress !!

The ref was sound enuff but the linesman in front of us was gash - fortunately giving as many weird decisions to us as them.

TACTICS - Really disappointed as the order of the day appeared to be to hit Foran in the air as often as possible despite the fact that we had two wide men. That was easily snuffed out by Airdrie. There was little support at all from the midfield apart from Hayes. We are not going to win anything with the lightweight, inexperienced four who started today. And what the feck is it all about only ever having two going for throw ins - why didnt we use the long throw in from Munro more often and why the feck have we only Sanchez in the six yard box fer corners - and allowing the four big men to try and do fancy stuff 12 yards out.

BOTTOM LINE is that we won an undeserved point today and we need to get some experience and tackiling into the middle - and the only people I could hear shouting today were at the back - the midfield were playing in a feckin library.

Bring back Proctor and Duncan or McBain in the middle.

[tm4tj]

Pretty much it Johndo.

I would have given a collective one smiley to:-

:thumb01n:

Foran

Stratford

Sanchez

Cox

Eagle

[DornochCaley]

This is a descrace. We dont have enough players that are determind to play for the jersey, instead of themselves. I would like to see Rooney as our number 1 striker ATM. He gets critisised alot for his inablility to finish but every time i have seen him this season he has given it his all and it looks like he is playing for the club and fans, aswell as a fighting for a starting place.

[TheKnowledge]

This is a descrace. We dont have enough players that are determind to play for the jersey, instead of themselves. I would like to see Rooney as our number 1 striker ATM. He gets critisised alot for his inablility to finish but every time i have seen him this season he has given it his all and it looks like he is playing for the club and fans, aswell as a fighting for a starting place.

But last week Foran and Sanchez were brilliant..........

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

This is a descrace. We dont have enough players that are determind to play for the jersey, instead of themselves. I would like to see Rooney as our number 1 striker ATM. He gets critisised alot for his inablility to finish but every time i have seen him this season he has given it his all and it looks like he is playing for the club and fans, aswell as a fighting for a starting place.

But last week Foran and Sanchez were brilliant..........

So I heard but evidently wasnt there - how were they played last week. Today Foran was hit with everything and Sanchez was practically up beside him. Have to say that when Sanchez dropped he had no midfielders busting agut to get to him. He also played very much to the right in the first half. It was like boot it to Foran to flick it on fer Sanchez. :thumb01n:

[Bridge_Ender]

Wouldn't disagree too much with the smileys. Thought Stratford did a wee bit better than being given credit for, why we have Duncan and McBain and are not playing them I have no idea. A wee bit of experience in the midfield would have made a lot of difference today. I like Stratfords energy and coupled with Duncans ability in the holding position I feel that is a combination that could prove fruitful.

Tactics... Where do you start?? TB starts with 2 wide men and every ball a hoof? Airdrie passed it around us at times. When we did play football we looked ok, dangerous even, then as soon as it broke down, HOOOOF, 6'5'' centre half heads it back... Surely there are enough footballers in our squad that we can use?? Get the ball down and make a pass, this long ball approach doesn't work, stretch the opposition with the pace of Hayes (who was excellent today). All that happens when its launched forward is it comes straight back and Foran starts getting more and more wound up and starts moaning and shouting at team mates!!

[Caley Mad In Berks]

Got back in early hours after 7 hour drive home, pretty much thinking the trip was a waste of time. I'd been looking forward to seeing all the new boys first hand. Only one who impressed was Hayes. I pretty much agree with IHE's Smiley ratings. All the subs looked better than those they replaced, even Barrowman imo, for the short while he was on. Thank goodness we have Esson. Airdrie were well up for the game and we certainly didn't deserve the point.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Feck me - not bad going fer an old git - ya will be in yer feckin pit fer days. :cdn-flag: :thumb04:

It is days like Airdrie that make you think twic about travelling. It can be soul destroying to watch an ICT team lacking in passion, skill and committment. It looked like men against boys on Saturday and the result should have mirrored that. It was also like watching a game down the park on a Sunday morning. We have just witnessed the worst midfield performance that I can remember.

I was all set to travel to Fir Park but I am having second thoughts. I think that I need - nae the club needs - a press release from Butcher giving his take on Saturday and his plans for Tuesday. Without it I aint travellin 400 miles.

[ictchris]

I am just writing the report for the site now. I will just say that Stratford is just abysmal, absolutely honkingly awful. To have Russell Duncan on the bench and Stratford on the pitch is beyond me.

[alternative maryhill]

Agree with most of what's been said on here.

The ineffectiveness of the central midfield is concerning: last week they looked solid without contributing a great deal creatively, but yesterday they were overrun. I'd like to have seen Mcbain on for Cox after about an hour to try to slow things down a bit and pick out some better passes. Eagle contributed little, but I also feel he received very poor service: there were a couple of times when Rosscoe could have sent him away and opted to play the ball inside instead. I wonder how much confidence the rest of the team have in him? Thank God we've got Hayes: he was again our most dangerous player and ran his heart out. His attitude is excellent, and signing him looks like the best thing Terry Butcher has done for the club.

I think some of the criticism of Sanchez is a little harsh: I was watching him closely again and thought that he worked hard trying to create space and dropping deeper to pick up the ball. Unfortunately his touch just didn't seem to be there yesterday - there was one point where he tried to release Foran with a ball through the defence, similar to last week's second goal, but weighted it far too much. It was a bit of an off-day for him, but I still expect him to be a big player for us this season. Foran's performance was more concerning, IMO, although he did make an important contribution for the goal. I think most people expected him to be our most influential player this season, but yesterday he only seemed interested in fits and starts. One encourgaing aspect of the attack was Rooney's performance when he came on: he looked really up for it and also showed some nice composure on the ball on a couple of occasions; not something I would have considered a strength of his game previously.

I've mentioned after each of the past two games that I felt Bulivitis's vulnerability against strikers playing in close to him would cost us, and it almost did, big style, yesterday. He just seems unable to cope with an attackers who back into him, then turn him. This isn't necessarily a reason to drop him, beacuse he has other strengths and clears his lines excellently, but is Butcher aware of this and is it something they can work on trying to improve? Other than that the defence was pretty solid, and it's great to hear both Golly and Munro shouting and organising. Munro has been excellent all season, but looks even more composed since Golly came back into the team.

Yesterday was disappointing, but I'm not letting it bother me too much, perhaps because I have never expected us to be serious challengers this season. A point away against anyone is no disaster, and Airdrie looked a lot better than Morton yesterday: strong, tidy and quick on the counter-attack. Our team can and will play better, but we should probably expect that days like yesterday, and worse, will also happen this season. What we don't need are attitudes like those of a couple of clowns sitting a few rows behind me yesterday who seemed intent on getting stuck into the players and the manager from the off. One in particular, who was telling Golly he was an "embarrassment" and that he should "f*** off back to County" from the first time he touched the ball, has no business being near a football match. And this was no young boy who doesn't know any better: this guy was in his fifties. I'm sorry: who's an embarrassment?

[DornochCaley]

Butcher must be kicking himself with how good Vigurs has been playing this season!

[dalneighboy]

I think TB has to sort out the midfield possibly bringing in Duncan for Eagle to add a bit of steel. We don't seem to have a decent playmaker who can control the game and hold onto the ball. The first time I saw Sanchez I thought he might be the one to make things happen but in the County game he hardly got a look in. I haven't seen any away games this season but at home we never seem to dominate the opposition.

It's still early in the season but we don't want to be falling too far behind the leading group and we really should be taking full points off Ardrie or Ayr if we expect to be making a challenge for promotion.

[The Long Man]

Butcher must be kicking himself with how good Vigurs has been playing this season!

Which makes you wonder how good his judgement is. Are we getting the Motherwell Butcher or the Brentford one? It's not just the team who have to knuckle down and start showing us what they are worth.

[DornochCaley]

Butcher must be kicking himself with how good Vigurs has been playing this season!

Which makes you wonder how good his judgement is. Are we getting the Motherwell Butcher or the Brentford one? It's not just the team who have to knuckle down and start showing us what they are worth.

At the end of the day. Most the worst performances have come from players he brought in. So i blame it all on Butcher. He brought in players than are not good enough! Bar say Hayes sometimes and Cox.

[DornochJAGGIE]

I was at the game, Airdrie passed us off the park which was embarassing to watch. Eagle and Stratford were terrible. They Should be dropped for the next game, when he have duncan and McBain on the bench its a joke. Terry better sort it out Soon!

[tm4tj]

It'a all about value add. If they don't add anything more than what we already have, then why are they playing and experienced players sitting on the bench. Changes needed.

[super1ct]

Its the constant moaning from foran that is starting to annoy me. at one point their goalie dropped the ball at his feet but he was to busy moaning about the cross to do anything about it

[absent friend]

Butcher must be kicking himself with how good Vigurs has been playing this season!

Which makes you wonder how good his judgement is. Are we getting the Motherwell Butcher or the Brentford one? It's not just the team who have to knuckle down and start showing us what they are worth.

For me, in this case, Butcher's judgement was spot on!!

[CaleyP]

Butcher must be kicking himself with how good Vigurs has been playing this season!

Which makes you wonder how good his judgement is. Are we getting the Motherwell Butcher or the Brentford one? It's not just the team who have to knuckle down and start showing us what they are worth.

For me, in this case, Butcher's judgement was spot on!!

Why do you think that, the lad is better than anything we have by far.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Its the constant moaning from foran that is starting to annoy me. at one point their goalie dropped the ball at his feet but he was to busy moaning about the cross to do anything about it

Good spot - and Foran knew it - if he had been alert it was a tap in. Vigurs went for disciplinary reasons not footballing ones - sometimes that has to be done.

[Glebeict]

Airdries' crest looks like something from a secret society