AS Airdrie 2-0 Windlaw

By Neil Brown
May 31 2007

AS Airdrie 2-0 Windlaw

Team

Rowan

S.Graham Burton Cooper Stewart

Hendrie Edgar Clark N.Pardoe

K.Pardoe Gray

A spirited display saw Airdrie end the season on a high note with a 2-0 victory over last season’s champions. Goals from Cooper and Hendrie gave the diamonds a Third place finish in the league table.

 

The game got under way at a windy Craigneuk park and Windlaw elected to shoot with the wind in the first half, This saw them have plenty possession but were mainly restricted to a few long range efforts which didn’t trouble Rowan. Airdrie found it hard in the early stages to get up the park and hold the play up as the wind played it’s part, However as the half wore on the conditions got better as the gusts dropped and this allowed both sides to get a foot on the ball. Windlaw had a good effort blocked in the box after a period of pressure but the best chance fell to Airdrie from a secondary ball from a cleared corner Kenny Pardoe whipped in a great cross which Gray attempted to get a head to but only succeeded in taking the ball away from Clark who was about to volley the ball goal wards, although to be fair Gray didn’t get the call.

 

Half time came and went with a blank scoreline and no changes for the second half. With the wind now almost gone both sides tried to play the ball about the park with both defence's looking pretty solid and the teams to a degree were canceling each other out. Airdrie took the lead midway through the half when a cleared corner was returned by Scott Graham and as Windlaw's defence pushed up Cooper came from deep to get on the end of Graham’s through ball as he made his way into the box under pressure from the Windlaw defender he managed to flick an effort over Lunny and into the bottom right hand of the goal, a great finish from the center half. Windlaw pressed hard to get back into the game but Airdrie defence played well right across the back four with Stewart bombing up the left wing to support the midfield. Airdrie had a couple of chances to increase there lead firstly Gray was played through on the left and as he cut in struck a decent shot at goal which Lunny saved well with his feet, Ross Hendrie had a similar effort blocked by the big keeper this time from the right hand side. Hendrie got the chance to make amends soon after when he found himself in a similar position this time however he rattled the ball high into the net to give Airdrie a 2-0 lead. Immediately Capaldi replaced Gray (Hamstring) and within minutes the striker had the chance to seal the win when he sprung the offside and went in on goal from a central position however he was well off the mark with his effort. Credit to Windlaw who continued to press the game looking for a way back in and Rowan had to look sharp to deal with a few efforts and cross balls. Ross Graham replaced Scott Graham with 5 to go and Airdrie saw out the time until the final whistle. A good all round team performance and a great finish to the season. The progress is there for all to see we just need to convert that into some silverware and join the likes of Windlaw, Blochairn and Greenhills as genuine challengers next season.

Subs

Capaldi for Gray (75)

R.Graham for S.Graham (85)

Khorasani ( unused)