AS Airdrie 0-0 Forest AFC

By C.MacFarlane
February 19 2006

AS AIRDRIE 0 FOREST 0

airdrie dropped 2 points in a disapointing game at craigneuk.a game with few clear cut chances and forest in the end probably deserved a point for their hard work.

airdrie made 3 changes to the side from last wk.on to the bench went kenny,mark and scotty and pardoe,capaldi and drummond took their place in the starting line-up(4-4-2)

the first half saw airdrie nearly score in 5 minutes.a fine passing move involving 5 players saw gray hit the post.however chances after that were scarce and airdrie struggled to pass the ball.the few times they did we created our opportunities and gray missed probably the best chance of the game from airdrie,s point of view when,from a fine ball from edgar,he was one on one with the keeper and after rounding him he shot weakly toward the goal and the defender got back to clear it.pardoe should have made it 1-0 but he knocked it over the bar from 8 yards.forest had their fair share of the play as well and had joy down both flanks but fortunately their final ball was poor and their goal attempts were from outside the box.0-0ht

second half saw airdrie press forward to little avail and the forest defence was in good form easily dealing with the airdrie attacks.likewise airdrie defence was rarely under pressure as well.with 25 minutes to go airdrie brought atkin on for hendrie and went to a 3-4-3 with rg moving into centre mid and pardoe going to the left.this gave airdrie some width and in the last 15 minutes airdrie finally got some joy down the flanks.atkin had a good opportunity when put through but fired weakly at the keeper then gray had another effort saved at the near post.with 10 to go kenny came on for graham and created a couple of chances which nearly resulted in a goal.forest had their best chance of the game with 5 minutes to play when the striker broke free.but fortunately for airdrie he went himself and although johnny pulled off a great save a square ball would have saw forest go 1-0 up.atkin then failed with a similar opportunity when put through by kenny.an early ball across the goal would have saw gray score the winner.instead the wee man delayed and the chance was lost.in the last minute pardoe had a rocket deflected over the bar and from the resulting corner cooper headed just wide.0-0ft

at the end of the day forest deserved a point airdrie created the better chances but considering they lost 6-1 last week forest defended really well and could have sneaked it at the end with that golden chance.for airdrie another disjointed display.some good passing and 2 or 3 great chances but also some poor play in general.the heads may be down a little but the consolation in today,s game was the fourth consecutive clean sheet at home.we now focus our attention on to the cup next week and a difficult tie against 3rd division kelvinbank star

ps another good turn out with 17 available today

team

j rowan

f burton
g cooper
g drummond
r graham

g capaldi
n pardoe
a edgar
r hendrie

a gray
a clark

s atkin for r hendrie
k pardoe for r graham
m johnston
s graham
g arbuckle
s walker