AS Airdrie 2-5 Blochairn Star
By Neil Brown
March 27 2007
AS Airdrie 2-5 Blochairn Star
Airdrie saw their slim title challenge effectively end with a 5-2 loss to league leaders Blochairn. 5 goals in the last 30 minutes saw the leaders overcome a 1-0 deficit to earn a massive 3 points and with closest challengers Greenhill’s also losing one hand is surely on the league title
With keeper’s Rowan and Hendrie missing and our 2 left sided midfielders absent Ross Graham took the sticks, Kenny Pardoe filled in at left mid with Thomson coming in to right mid.
The first half was relatively quiet for the first 25 minutes with little in the way of chances for both sides. Gray had the first chance for Airdrie but shot well wide, then Blochairn’s midfielder fired well over the bar soon after. With chances at a minimum Airdrie were more than holding their own against the leaders and working hard all over the park.15 minutes from half time Airdrie took the lead when Graham knocked a clearance over Blochairn’s centre backs and with the goalie in no man’s land Edgar ran on and calmly lobbed the ball over his head for 1-0. This prompted a response from star and the number 25 should have equalised when the ball broke nicely to him at the edge of the box but fortunately his attempt went narrowly wide. Right on half time Airdrie missed a golden chance to make it 2-0. Good play down the left saw Kenny clear and from a nice ball across the box an in running Gray knocked the ball over from 12 yards.1-0 half time
Airdrie made no changes at half time and for 15 minutes took the game to Blochairn and nearly made it two with a couple of half chances that came from mistakes by star’s goalie who was making a few mistakes that Airdrie couldn’t take advantage off. With just under 30 minutes left star drew level. a corner from the right was headered onto the bar and Blochairn Henderson followed up to head home.2 minutes later the game had turned on its head as star made it 2-1.a high ball saw Stewart’s clearing header rebound of a Blochairn player and fall kindly for Henderson to hammer a superb shot into the bottom corner. The leader’s tails were up but Airdrie showed resilience by bouncing back 5 minutes later. A long throw saw cooper head just over but within a minute another long throw by Clark missed everybody apart from Edgar who headered into an empty net. Then came, for me, the turning point as Blochairn retook the lead not even a minute later. good play from Blochairn saw the number 6 run free and as he looked up he played a fine ball over s graham’s head to Henderson who this time hammered a left foot drive first time into the opposite corner for a nice hat-trick. This knocked the stuffing out of Airdrie as the heads went down and Blochairn fitness and fresh legs took a grip on the game. Within minutes the game was done and dusted as a ball into Airdrie’s box wasn’t dealt with and from the resultant cross pardoe, in attempting to header clear from close to the goal line slipped and could only divert the ball into the net. with 15 to go Airdrie pushed 3 up front and left themselves exposed at the back which the number 7 took advantage of and ran 20 yards before firing the ball into the net for 5-2.no real chances for either side and the game finished with the league leaders going back to Blochairn with a deserved 3 points.
For myself this game’s decisive moment came after Blochairn took a 3-2 lead not even a minute after Airdrie had drawn level. They got a visible lift and Airdrie’s heads dropped and from then on their was only going to be one winner. Blochairn are top on merit and while their keeper and defence isn’t the strongest their midfield and forward options are the best in the league and they proved that with their substitutions that changed the game especially a fine hat-trick by Henderson. They will win the league without doubt and are the team to beat. For Airdrie we competed well for an hour and played to our strengths and at 1-0 we looked confidant because the defence had played well and we were creating two or three chances. The problem for Airdrie was a lack of depth on the bench as has been noted at the start of this report. With Thomson going off injured early on we had to use our only attacking option in Clark earlier than we had planned and that left sonic who can cover defence but couldn’t change a game like Blochairn had in reserve. Also with Blochairn able to train twice a week the fitness levels were noticeable as well in the last 20 minutes. We learn, hopefully from this game, and move on to next week. Thomson has an occurrence of the cruciate ligament he had badly damaged a few years ago and could be done for the rest of the season.
Team
S.Graham Stewart Cooper N.Pardoe
Thompson Edgar Smith K.Pardoe
Gray Capaldi
Subs
Clark for Thompson (25)
Burton for N.Pardoe (75)