Excelsior Stadium

Airdrieonians v Alloa Athletic

Today’s win against Airdrie United was very important as the club went into the match on a run of six league games without a win, although the midweek draw and comeback against Forfar Athletic had undoubtedly given the side renewed confidence. The Wasps always looked the more likely side and could have been ahead before Stuart Noble’s opener on 27 minutes, Stuart himself had a great chance earlier in the half along with Scott Walker who each might have earlier opened the score. Ross Philp who had made his full league debut at Station Park played a great pass to put in Michael McGowan for the second goal which was always going to be so important. Allan Maitland’s side could have won this match by a bigger margin due to the fact Airdrie United offered little on the day. Their day was compounded two minutes from the end when Nathan Taggart broke clear and Stephen McGowan brought him down to deny the player a great goal scoring opportunity and was subsequently given a straight red card.

 

allan maitland after airdrie united victory

People will look at this today and wonder why we have managed to go so many games without a victory, because we were excellent today, but today to be fair really comes on the back of Tuesday nights game at Forfar. We played so well at Forfar on Tuesday night , took a lot of confidence out of not losing the game having gone a goal behind and we took that into our training session on Thursday night and I thought we took that into today’s game as well. Even before we scored the first goal we had created two really good chances with the Stuart Noble chance and then a chance in the box for Scott Walker, we deserved our goal, defended really well in the game and I don’t recall Airdrie United having any real clear cut chances. We dominated the game but we needed the second goal, Airdrie had started the second half better by pushing Ryan McCord in behind Scott Gemmill and that caused us a wee problem initially. The second goal helped settle the nerves and I thought we thoroughly deserved to win and played very well. Delighted for young Ross Philp who has come into the team at right back and being a young lad sometimes you worry about pushing them into the side but he had his baptism last year introducing him from the bench a few times but in his last two games he has been superb. We have freshened the team up and it has taken time to settle and hopefully today’s result will help the side – we needed that win and I am delighted we have achieved that. Tuesday night was so important for us, we went to Forfar on the back of a 3-0 home defeat and really we could have folded, we various injuries including David McClune and Mark Brown and at times of adversity like that it depends how you come out of it and as I said, I thought we actually played better on Tuesday than we did today, we played well today and controlled the game but on Tuesday we were excellent and played better which gave the players great confidence and footballs all about that. There was a spell today when we kept the ball and we haven’t done that in weeks, we were just clearing our lines and making sure we didn’t lose things, it was also great to have our goalkeeper having a shut out today. Airdrie have two great midfield players in Ryan McCord and Jamie Stevenson and it was important not to let them have time on the ball and both Kevin’s were pressing them to make sure this didn’t happen. When you are not playing well all you can ask the team to do is work very hard and I think generally we have done that and today we have probably worked harder than at any other time recently, with the work rate came the confidence and that made the difference.
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Airdrieonians v Alloa Athletic

Alloa Athletic ended the first quarter of the season with their first ever league victory over Airdrie United and also their first victory in the league at the Excelsior Stadium since the club won the Challenge Cup at the same stadium on 21st November, 1999 against Inverness CT, the club did defeat Airdrie United at start of Season 2009/10 in the CIS Cup in a game which was drawn 0-0 and Alloa won the penalty shoot out. Alloa started yesterdays game brightly and could have been two goals ahead in the first 5 minutes, Bryan Prunty’s free kick was well held by keeper Mark Ridgers before another ex Airdrie player, Kevin McDonald had a one on one with the keeper which Ridgers blocked superbly. When the goal came it was created by Kevin McDonald, whose cross was headed goalward by Bryan Prunty and Jim Lister chested the ball into the net. Three minutes later Bryan Prunty was booked aftar a clash with Scott Gibson which incited Paul Lovering who joined Prunty in the book. In the second half Airdrie came far more into the game picking up the pace, but never creating any chances near goal. Airdrie were reduced to nine men in the second half when Rhys Devlin was sent off after a kick at Kevin McDonald and four minutes later Kieran Stallard, on loan to Airdrie from Falkirk, was also dismissed after receiving a second yellow card after a verbal attack towards the officials which would disappoint the Airdrie management. Alloa should have increased their lead, Darren Smith did strike the post with a vicious shot and David Gormley saw a piledriver just flash past the post. To their credit the young Airdrie side played till the final whistle and nearly equalised right at the end, which was one of the only efforts they had on goal during the match. Ex Alloa player Jamie Stevenson had a good game in midfield for the home side along side “Man of the Match” Ryan McCord, a great three points for “The Wasps” but they again could have had the points wrapped up earlier in the game.

 

allan maitland after airdrie united victory

First and foremost it’s really important win with the first quarter out of the way, if you sit at the end of the first quarter with 14 or 15 points then I think that is no where near enough if you are hoping to be in the challenge at the end of the league season so we are now sitting on 17 points, obviously that is a much better average and the big thing we have got to change is our away form and winning 1-0 here today is a great result.  I know that people will look at it and say that Airdrie were down to nine men, to that end we should have scored a second goal to make it more comfortable but even against nine men the objective was to stay professional and we limited Airdrie to very few chances apart from the one right at the end which made it seem closer but other than that I can’t recollect our goalkeeper having to make another serious save.  However we should have scored more than one goal– I thought we started the game particularly well – played well in the first half with great chances for Kevin McDonald and Bryan Prunty and could have been 2-0 up inside the first five minutes but we are just delighted to win.  Great to see Jim Lister getting his goal although Bryan Prunty was still trying to claim the goal as well – such is their passion to score, which is a great sign.  Airdrie are a very young team – there is no doubt discipline is a vital part of football and if you get to a situation where they are on top then the discipline won’t be a problem.  From our point of view the most important thing is not to give them that advantage – to make sure the advantage was with us – they were then chasing the game and then that element of indiscipline comes into it when decisions go against them.  To be fair I thought the referee handled everything absolutely spot on, including the bookings against us – I don’t think he had any choice with either of the red cards.  The first one was an absolute stone waller Rhys Devlin made no attempt to play the ball and the second sending off for Kieron Stallard I am not sure the referee was going to book him until he started mouthing off at the referee which was just silly.  I don’t think they left the referee with any option.  From our point of view it’s a shut out and a fantastic 3 points for us and I couldn’t be more pleased.  We worked on something on Tuesday night in preparation for today’s game, we looked at changing the shape of or our team and it didn’t work, that’s the benefit of having the park on a Tuesday night and trying that so we reverted back to our 4-4-2 formation today and it was a great result for us.
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Airdrieonians v Alloa Athletic

On Saturday Alloa Athletic defeated Airdrie United for the first time in the clubs history in a competitive match, the game was finally won 4-3 to “The Wasps” on penalties after the game went to extra time, for the second cup tie in a week. However although Alloa Athletic probably played better against Ross County, this game should have been won in the first half when chances for Greig Spence and Stuart Noble were superbly saved by home keeper Stephen Robertson. The first chance of the game fell to the home side and David Crawford had to push a goalbound shot on to the crossbar. The club now progress to the 2nd round draw on Tuesday, with the next round ties due to be played on Tuesday 25th or Wednesday 26th August.

Alloa Athletic                                       Airdrie United
1 David Crawford                             1 Stephen Robertson
2 David McClune                              2 Darren Smith Bkd 100m
3 Marc McCafferty                           3 Paul Lovering Sent off 25m
4 Scot Buist                                      4 Kevin McDonald
5 Scott Walker Bkd 71m                  5 Bobby Donnelly
6 John Grant                                     6 David Nixon Bkd 40m
7 Andy Scott                                    7 Alan Trouten
8 Mark Brown                                  8 Scott McLaughlin
9 Greig Spence                                 9 Scott Gemmill
10 Scott Agnew                               10 John Baird
11 Stuart Noble                               11 Frankie Lagana

12 Chris Townsley (8) 46m               12 Ricky Waddell (11) 62m
14 Hugh Kerr (3) 63m                      14 Paul Keegan (9) 101m
15 Ross Philp                                    15 Kevin Watt (81m)
16 Callum Anderson (9) 101m           16 Patrick McCabe
Sent Off 110mins

GK Stephen Hall                                GK Lee Hollis
Referee : Charlie Richmond Asst: Don Robertson & Alan Hogg
CROWD – 756
Full Time 0 – 0
After Extra Time 0 – 0 Alloa won 4-3 on penalties

Penalties – Airdrie Utd                        Alloa Athletic
John Baird Miss 0 – 0                        John Grant Miss 0 – 0
Kevin McDonald Score 0 – 1            Andy Scott Score 1 – 1
Ricky Waddell Score 1 – 2                Chris Townsley   Score 2 – 2

David Nixon  Miss    2 – 2                   Agnew Score 3 – 2
Kevin Watt Score 3 – 3                      Scot Buist Score 4 – 3
Sponsors Man of the Match – Stephen Robertson

 

allan maitland after cis cup victory

Obviously we are pleaded to win , two weeks in a row now we have managed to take our games to extra time, both goalkeepers were excellent today, Davie Crawford’s save early in the game when he touched the ball on to the crossbar was magnificent, it looked a goal from where we were and during that spell when it was eleven against eleven, I thought we played well, but Airdrie had the best chances, they went down to ten men, I thought, Airdrie then were the better team. They passed the ball well, but strangely enough in that time we had great chances, Greig Spence had two, maybe three chances when he should have scored, Stuart Noble had a chance which Stephen Robertson hurt himself saving, but we didn’t play well. So having said all that I was quite relieved to get to extra time and also penalty kicks. The problem getting to penalty kicks against Airdrie, with Stephen Robertson in goal, is you think he will save at least one anyway, because he is an excellent keeper. What we have is a goalkeeper who saved a penalty kick last week against Ross County and he goes one better today by saving two against Airdrie United, Davie has done great for us today and we are delighted to be in the next round and I think in the effort the team has put in over the past two games, I think we deserved success somewhere in one of the games, so we have achieved it today. Disappointed for young Callum Anderson, making his debut today, that he gets himself sent off, I don’t think the referee has much choice, I think it was a rash challenge and his boot was up, Paul Lovering’s tackle was a disgrace, an absolute disgrace and our player is marked from the knee all the way down his leg, it was a terrible challenge, I like Paul Lovering, I just think he has that wee element in his game, but we are pleased to get through, it was a decent day for us, not the best game of football, but plenty of chances for both teams.
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