AS Airdrie 1-3 Tynecastle

By C MacFarlane
August 22 2006

AS AIRDRIE 1 TYNECASTLE 3


A perfect example of not taking your chances cost Airdrie today as their opening home game of the season ended in a 3-1 defeat by their Easterhouse opponents. After Airdrie went 1 up and missing some great chances the men from tynecastle struck 3 goals in an 18 minute second half spell to get the win.

Airdrie started in their 3-1-4-2 formation with Ross Graham and Pardoe joined by trialist a Stewart who was in for big Gogs who was away for the weekend.Ally and Capaldi started upfront with Khorasani and hendrie wide with smithy, Andy and Kenny starting in the middle.5 on the bench provided plenty of cover as well.

The first 25 minutes of the game was all Airdrie as their formation gave tynecastle all sorts of problems. Excellent football was showing down both flanks but especially down the right. A fine move from defence saw Capaldi fire wide from 8 yards.Khorasani, Gray, K.Pardoe with a couple all passed up decent opportunities from 8-10 yards. The good football led to the number 10 for tynecastle (who was sent off against us last yr) commits a terrible foul on hendrie which led to the only yellow card of the game. playing some good stuff but after a change in tynecastle formation to match ours Airdrie started to play the long ball and this allowed the Easterhouse men to get the ball and get back into the game and for the last 15 minutes of the half they were on the ascendancy with their number 7 and 9 missing good chances to take the lead. Half time was 0-0

the second half started like the first. Following fine play down the right Kenny’s cut back saw Gray hit the post, then smithy headed wide and Kenny then fluffed a shot from 8 yards that somehow hit the crossbar. All Airdrie and the goal finally arrived after 60 minutes. following a foul by the number 10 Khorasani swung a beauty(not for the first time) into the back post where a. Stewart headed into the back of the net.1-0 and looking well.however a team always seem vulnerable after a goal and within 2 minutes tynecastle were level. After Gray missed a chance to make it 2-0 good play in the middle by the number 14 who came on after our goal saw him play a ball over our defence who had switched off. Indecision by Johnny in goals allowed the number 9 to fire under him for the equaliser. However Airdrie took the game to their opponents again and another couple of chances were passed up. but just as Airdrie were looking to take control a pass through Airdrie defence saw Johnny hesitate again and no communication with Stewart allowed the striker to nip in and forced Stewart to catch him in the box. From the resultant penalty the number 10 made no mistake for 2-1 with 20 minutes to go. Clark then made his first appearance after injury for Gray who had put in a good shift and within minutes nearly drew Airdrie level with a header which just went over the bar. However any chance Airdrie had vanished when tynecastle made it 3-1 with 12 minutes to go. Fine play down our left side saw the wide man swing a great ball into the box for the number 4 to power a header into the net. Airdrie kept going and finished stronger and they still passed up good chances especially by Capaldi when his first time effort from 10 yards forced the keeper into a great save and this chance summed up Airdrie in front of goal. However it wasn’t to be and the game finished 3-1.

As gordie said on another post they took their chances and we missed 9 or 10 good ones. We played some good stuff and fitness wise looked strong and if we had made it 2-0 would have gone on and won the game comfortably. However losing a goal right after going in front gave tynecastle a way into the game and they took advantage with 2 further goals. like every game some positives and a couple of negatives but the main thing is we performed quite well and at least created good opportunities by playing good football and not relying on long throws, long balls etc.there is a long way to go and if we continue playing like we did today then we will have no problem playing in this division

J Rowan, A Stewart, N Pardoe R Graham R Hendrie D Khorasani K Pardoe S Smith A Edgar, A Gray G Capaldi

A Clark for A Gray Shiell for D Khorasani, S Graham for R Hendrie

G Arbuckle M Johnstone