Stenny came out of the blocks ferociously with Easton firing into some early challenges to set the tone for his team. Airdrie were second to every ball and had trouble keeping hold of it when in our possession. Airdrie gave away a needless corner in five minutes and Stenny's Donnelly punished the lacsadaisical Diamonds with a clinical finish. Midway through the half Graham then Waldie gave the Warriors a three goal cushion with clinical finishing. Understandably the Airdrie support, almost double the hosts, were scratching their heads wondering if it was the same team we'd watch humble Killie in midweek. The crowds anger looked justified as guys like Brannigan, Docherty and Vareille just didn't get going. Cherrie looked nervous in goals and it's fair to say the result would be different if McGeown was in goals but the boy did alright considering. Wilson in defence however was having a nightmare and was overrun by the pacy Maroon strikers. Only Gow, Armstrong and McGowan really looked up for it but as we know, three against eleven isn't a fair fight.

Sandy took himself off at halftime to sort things out. He switched to a 433 formation with Gardner replacing him by going into midfield and Gow and Glancy flanking Vareille in attack. Shortly after the inevitable happened when Wilson was hooked off for Harvey with Armstrong going to left back and McGowan moving into central defence. Vareille started the fightback by hooking home left footed after good work by Harv. Stevie McKeown then replaced the surly Frenchman and proceed to ram in a quick double the first of which he seemed to run through a couple of brick walls in the process. 3-3 and looking for the killer fourth? Wrong. After a short spell of misplaced passing Stenny sub Murphy scored a sizzler. He picked the ball up in his own half, shrugged off a challenge from centre forward McKeown and darted toward the Airdrie goal. At this point of course I'm lecturing on the benefits of having a holding midfielder, you know in the style of Darren Brady, Didi Hamman, Dunga..., anyways, Murphy is flying towards our defence and lets fly from 20 yards before Brannigan can get a challenge in, and the unstoppable shot beats wee Cherrie all ends up. Couldn't blame the goalie for that one, but you could have a go at Murphy and McKenzie for taunting the Airdrie fans like they did.

We'll let McKenzie off with that one thanks to his half time trick, for anyone not there he managed to plunk a copper from 20 yards away. I'm sure it was an accident, ahem. In summary Stenny deserved their win. They came at Airdrie from the off and got stuck right in. Guys like Easton, Waldie, McKenna and Coulter rolled up their sleeves and attacked anything in red and white. Airdrie looked unorganised, unmotivated and uninterested. Sandy did almost pull the rabbit out of the hat but to no avail. Marv and Vella are missed when absent. We do play better with four at the back but can't hold the ball up front, and we need to reorganise the midfield so that there is protection for our defence.

TEAMS