AS Airdrie 1-1 Shettleston United

By C MacFarlane
April 25 2006

AS AIRDRIE 1 SHETTLESTON 1

A header from G.Cooper with 10 minutes left gave a depleted Airdrie side a deserved draw at Airdrie sports centre against a team who are fighting relegation.

Due to injury and player absenteeism I had to make my first start since we played windlaw in January with Arbuckle and Trench as the only subs

Playing against a strong wind and with a bumpy park it was always going to be difficult and so it proved with Shettleston having most of the early play and after a mistake from myself allowed the winger to fire past the post. Rowan had to look sharp 2 or 3 times as the visitors pressed for an opening then Arbuckle, who had come on for the ill Ross Graham after 25 mins, left his man who knocked the ball over the bar from 6 yards. However the goal arrived when a failed Airdrie clearance to the number 8 saw him fire a shot from 20 yards that deflected off Cooper and under the body of Rowan. Airdrie then had their best spell of the first half with some good pressure and were denied a penalty when the Shettleston defender handled in the box. Unfortunately the ref, who had a decent game, deemed it unintentional and played on, then Pardoe was caught inches offside when he was clean through. Airdrie defended well to half time and went into the break 1-0 down.

With the wind at their back Airdrie were expected to dominate the second half but it was the visitors who had the early chances in the second half but luckily they didn’t cause Johnny too much problems. Airdrie then started to press the game and started to create 2 or 3 openings and with Shettleston defence pushing up Airdrie nearly caught them on a couple of occasions and better awareness from Airdrie might have led to a good chance. Airdrie’s best chance of the game fell to myself but a weak effort when clear on goal was poor. Shettleston thought they had made it 2 when a break down the left saw the player through on goal but unwisely he choose to pass the ball across to another player who put it into the net. Fortunately the ref blew for offside and Airdrie survived. Airdrie nearly equalised when Edgar went clear down the left and his cut back was just missed by Atkin at the back post, then Gray forced the keeper to pull of a great save following a fine attack down the right. However from the resultant corner cooper headed a fine goal at the back post to become joint top scorer with Gray. With 10 minutes left Airdrie then pressed for the winner but nearly paid the price for pushing men forward when Shettleston broke free and only a final clearance from Pardoe then myself kept the game at 1-1.that was the last action and the ref blew for full time.

For Airdrie a decent fight back considering the heads could have went down at 1-0.we fought well considering the team we had and the players that were missing. A draw was about right and some good performances today notably from Pardoe, Rowan, Cooper and 90 minutes from smithy who played his first game since the middle of January. Also the 2 strikers who were asked to put a lot of work into the game and it was good that atkin got 90 minutes as well. That point imp told mathematically secured our place in the first division which was our aim at the start of the season. Hopefully we will have more players available next week for the difficult trip to the cage and blochairn

team
J Rowan

G Drummond
G Cooper
N Pardoe
C MacFarlane

R Graham
S Smith
A Edgar
S Graham

A Gray
S Atkin

Arbuckle for R.Graham
Trench