Tynecastle 0-2 AS Airdrie
By Neil Brown
April 18 2007
TYNECASTLE 0 AS AIRDRIE 2
Airdrie closed the gap on fourth place Tynecastle with a fine win at Lochend School. Goals from Clark (25) and K.Pardoe (85) mixed with solid defending throughout saw the Airdrie men produce one of their best all round displays of the season to earn a well deserved three points.
Airdrie made 4 changes from Saturday with Burton, Morrison, Edgar and Clark in with S.Graham, Khorasani, Gray and N.Pardoe onto the bench.
The first half started with Airdrie taking the initiative and quickly forcing a couple of corners that saw cooper head narrowly over. Kenny then flashed a free kick just past the post as the home team struggled to get into the game. However after 20 minutes they had the best chance of the half when a quick break saw the striker clear down the left and his shot evaded rowan only to strike the bar and the ball cleared. A big let off for Airdrie but again they worked themselves into the game and Morrison was getting a lot of joy down the left hand side.airdrie then took the lead when a long kick from rowan evaded 2 defenders and fell to clarky who took control, shrugged of a challenge and fired the ball past the keeper. The rest of the half saw Airdrie on top but few clear cut chances. The last 5 minutes saw Tynecastle launch 3/4 long throw-ins that was playing into Airdrie’s hands as cooper won every ball.
No changes at half time as Airdrie performed extremely well apart from a couple of dodgy moments.
The second half saw the home start the better and a half chance nearly fell to the number 9.airdrie responded and good play by Edgar down the right saw him hammer the ball across goal and Morrison was inches from making it 2-0.as the half went on Tynecastle kept knocking high balls into the box but Airdrie’s defence won every first and second ball and some nice passing from defence sent Airdrie attacking on the counter 3 or 4 times with little in the way of clear cut chances. The home teams number 10 finally found his way into the book with a poor challenge on Edgar as Airdrie started to take control of the match. As the game entered the last 20 minutes Airdrie made their first changes with gray and Pardoe on for Capaldi and Edgar. The home team by now was starting to push 7/8 men forward in attack but yet again found Airdrie defending stoutly and giving nothing away. Just as it looked like finishing 1-0 Airdrie got the decisive second goal. Good play down the left saw the ball swung into the box for Clark to header the ball across the goal to Kenny who had an easy header from 5 yards to finish the scoring.kaz then came on for the last 5 replacing the tired Morrison. Gray almost made it three in the last minute when fine play down the right saw him go by 2 defenders only for the keeper to pull of a good save. Final score 2-0.
Without doubt one of Airdrie’s better display, s.the whole team put in a shift, worked hard, plenty of talking combined with some good passing and movement at various points of the game.airdrie restricted the home team to very little in the way of chances despite the high balls played into the box and should have made their counter attacks in the second half pay off with 2 or 3 goals to make the game really safe. A good turnout for a midweek game with plenty of encouragement from the guys on the bench. A mention to Burton and Morrison, with both making their first starts for a couple of months, who put in fine displays. What a difference from Saturday.
Tynecastle will be disappointed with their display as they have been on a good run recently but I’m sure they will bounce back as they are a decent side with some good players and as luck would have it we could play them in the quarter final of the Strathclyde cup if they overcome Hardgate from the third division.
Would also add I thought that the referee last night (Ian Oliphant) had a fine game and only booked one player in a well fought contest.
Team
Rowan
Stewart Burton Cooper R.Graham
Edgar Smith K.Pardoe Morrison
Clark Capaldi
Gray for Capaldi (70)
N.Pardoe for Edgar (70)
Khorasani for Morrison (85)
S.Graham (Unused)