Dunbreac 1-3 AS Airdrie

By N.Brown
February 26 2007

DUNBREAC 1 AS AIRDRIE 3


airdrie recovered from the loss of an early goal to earn a deserved victory in the strathclyde cup first round tie.a brace from the impressive capaldi and a first half strike from gray was enough to defeat dunbreac for the second week in a row.

with rowan,hendrie and thamson missing from last wks game in came cooper,smith and capaldi.with both keepers missing it was left to r graham to take the sticks but graham is a fine goalie in his own right so there was no drop off in performance.

this reporter missed the first 15/20 minutes but dunbreac took the lead during this time(neil can fill in any missing parts).a misplaced pass from smith saw the home player through and his strike went over graham and off underside of the bar for 1-0.for the last 25minutes it was airdrie who did the pressing as they looked for the equaliser and only some good defending kept them out.however dunbreac had to be watched on the break as airdrie pushed men forward.after 30minutes airdrie drew level.after a spell of pressure the ball fell kindly to gray at the edge of the box and his left footed strike found the far corner.airdrie thought they had taken the lead when pardoe found the net from 8 yards but he was ruled offside when from the touchline it looked a good goal.however airdrie weren,t denied and took the lead on the stroke of half time.poor play by the centre half saw capaldi rob him of the ball at the edge of the box and the in form front man coolly chipped the ball beyond the keeper and into the far corner for a 2-1 half time lead

the second half started with no changes by the manager but it was a relatively quiet start with little chances by both teams in the first 15 minutes.airdrie continued to have the majority of the ball but at 2-1 the home team were always in it and airdrie had to be alert at every opportunity.however as the half progressed airdrie started to get the upper hand and started to get joy down the flanks and only a poor final ball on 2 occassions from kenny saw the chances to increase the lead gone.however halfway through the second half airdrie did make it 3-1 when good play down the left saw the ball cut back to capaldi and from 20 yards his strike fired by the keeper and into the top corner.airdrie made their first subs of the day with kaz and smith off and mo and clark replacing them.morrison was involved right away with some fine play down the left involving parry and kenny then gray almost got in.at 3-1 dunbreac were forced to push men forward and as a result airdrie were getting chances to put the game out of reach and from one attack found themselves with a 4 on 1 but the chance was missed as gray miskicked his effort across goal and kenny,who put the ball in the net,was ruled offside.the home team didnt really threaten in the last 15 minutes and airdrie saw the game out relatively comfortably.with 10 to go sonic replaced gray as airdrie eased into the next round.airdrie indulged in a bit of showboating at the end and from kenny,s cheeky flick into the box clark missed the chance to finish the game.

a better performance from airdrie although the home team didn,t play as well as they had done last week.but today was all about what we did and for the best part can be relatively pleased with the performance.some slack play still in their game but the passing was better and the attitude was a lot better as they knew they didn,t do themselves justice last week.cup ties are all about results and airdrie achieved that with a deserved win and a decent display.for wullie and his team it looks like a hard battle ahead to avoid relegation but in their last few games they have given blochairn and ourselves hard games and im sure they will battle on till the end of the season.we wish them all the best

team

r graham,s graham a stewart g cooper n pardoe,a edgar k pardoe s smith d khorasani,a gray g capaldi

g morrison for d khorasani(70),a clark for s smith(70),f burton for a gray(80)