Whitehill FP 4-3 AS Airdrie

By C.MacFarlane
October 22 2006

WHITEHILL 4 AS AIRDRIE 3


airdrie,s charity of giving goals away continued sat afternoon as they crashed out the west of scotland against an average whitehill team.goals from k pardoe,g thomson and andy clark were all in vain as the men from tollcross scored twice in either half.

airdrie had hendrie,morrison and burton missing from last wk but the 2 pardoe,s came back into the team as the only changes from greenhill game

an already heavy park was made worse as the first half was played in a downpour.the home team settled quicker and made the early running with the number 9 looking quite lively.airdrie tried to pass the ball around but a combination of the park and poor passing led to them to playing the ball down the channels in behind the home defence.airdrie had the first chance when gray headered into the net only to be given offside then kenny,s free kick was saved by the keeper. a minute later the home team had the lead.a needless free kick was given away by graham at the edge of the box and from the resultant kick the midfielder curled the ball into the bottom corner.airdrie tried to strike back and gray,s cutback was headered away by the number 5.after 30 minutes airdrie equalised through their first real passage of football.neat play down the left by smith and gray found pardoe and his first time ball was hammered into the net by kenny.however airdrie quickly found themselves 2-1 down when an airdrie attack that broke down saw a quick ball played to the number 9 down the left wing and his pace took him by puppy and he neatly finished by clipping the ball over johnny.both sides had little chances before the ref blew for half time.

no changes for airdrie and they tried to take the game to the visitors after half time.with gary thomson getting plenty room down the right hand side thomson was a busy man and a couple of times he played dangerous balls into the box that were cleared by the home defence.however on the break whitehill were dangerous and a couple of times they could have increased their lead when airdrie got stretched by pushing men forward.however airdrie levelled after an hour.a fine ball from edgar saw thomson clear down the right and as he cut inside he fired a left foot strike into the keepers right hand corner.a minute later airdrie should have made it 3-2 when leading scorer kenny was clean through but a fine save by the keeper kept the home team on level terms.5 minutes later airdrie instead went 3-2 down.a diagonal ball caught graham goal side of his opponent but as johnny came out for an easy pick up he slid on the heavy surface and the home player was left with a simple tap in.airdrie tried to respond and 2 or 3 times were given offside when quite clearly they were onside. from a pardoe cutback kenny just failed to get good contact and the ball slipped over the bar.just as they worked their way back into the game the charity continued in defence when 3 players allowed the midfielder to basically walk through a static defence and slide the ball under johnny for 4-2.airdrie then made their first change with capoo on for kenny and capaldi immediately found joy down the left and only a good block prevented his goal bound effort.airdrie had to push forward and further chances were missed by gray and capaldi then gray should have been given at least 1 penalty when he was brought down inside the box but the ref waved play on.from a long ball andy clark ran on and hammered a pile driver into the net to pull a goal back with 12 minutes to play.airdrie made their second sub with gray off for s graham and thomson pushing upfront.airdrie continued to put pressure on the home team and graham fired just wide then capaldi missed a great chance when he fired over from 10 yards with 5 minutes to go.airdrie made their 3rd sub with buckles on for an injured clark and only a fine save from the keeper from pardoe prevented airdrie from taking the game to extra time.that was the last chance and airdrie had made another early exit from the cup

on the balance of the game and the number of chances we had, especially in the second half, airdrie should have won.however when you lose 4 goals you don,t deserve to get anything out of a match and today was a case in point.over the last 3 yrs our goals against record has been as good if not better than most teams in the league.but to continually give up 3 and 4 goals a game can,t go on this yr.that,s 4 games out of 9 which we have played that we have conceded 3 or more.thats nearly 50% which im sure everyone will agree with is a ratio thats way to high.where the problem is who knows?the keeper and defence take some of the blame but the rest of the team share the burdon as well.however the majority of goals we have lost have been individual errors which hopefully can/will be put right plus that,s 2 wks in a row we have lost a goal by a player slipping so luck hasn,t been kind on us.how do we put it right is down to the management and will have to discuss the matter on tue night at training.

apart from this we have to keep working hard and hopefully the mistakes will become less frequent and our goals against will improve.we still have a lot to play for and im sure the guys will be eager to bounce back next wk.

we wish whitehill all the best in the next round

team

j rowan,a stewart g cooper r graham,g thomson a edgar s smith k pardoe n pardoe,a clark a gray

g capaldi for k pardoe,s graham for a gray,g arbuckle for a clark,d khorasani