Newburgh Juveniles 2-3 AS Airdrie
By Neil Brown
December 17 2006
Newburgh Juveniles 2-3 AS Airdrie
A depleted Airdrie squad made the trip to Fife after the match got the go ahead late on Friday afternoon aiming for a place in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup. After a number of call offs Airdrie managed to scrape 11 players together from the 23 registered with Brown starting his first game since May 2004 and MacFarlane starting only his second game of the season, Airdrie lined up in their usual 4-4-2 formation.
Brown Cooper MacFarlane R Graham
Capaldi Smith Edgar Morrison
Gray Clark
The game kicked off early on a crisp park with touches of frost still showing incase of any extra time and penalties. However Airdrie had to get through the 90 minutes with no subs firstly. Neither side created anything of note in the early exchanges and it was 15 minutes in when Newburgh took a lucky lead, A corner was half cleared by the Airdrie defence and the ball broke for Newburgh at the edge of the box who got a clean strike on the ball, Rowan seemed to have it covered but a Newburgh forward coming out got a little edge on the ball which bounced down off the wet surface and through Rowan’s hands.
Airdrie’s task was made even more tougher when Brown was sent off for a last man challenge in the box following some slack defending. Rowan produced a wonderful stop from the resultant penalty to give Airdrie heart for the remaining 70 minutes. Indeed Airdrie struck back on the half hour mark when Smith capitalized on a loose ball in the midfield to slide an excellent pass for Gray who burst through on goal rounded the keeper and blasted home the equalizer. Airdrie were determined to hold on till half time but were undone again from a set piece, poor marking from a corner on the left allowed Newburgh to head home a second goal of the half.
Down 2-1 at the interval Airdrie were up against it however they battled away and tried to hit Newburgh on the break, as the game wore on without the eleven men taking advantage Airdrie grew in confidence and some neat play in the middle saw Edgar "turn 25 yards from goal and cracked a sizzling dipping thunderbolt of a left foot shot as straight as an arrow in off the underside of the bar....you just dont save those!!" to make the scoreline 2-2. Newburgh threw on a couple of subs to try and get at the tiring Airdrie defence but the back three held firm with great support from the midfield, Gray and Clark were working there socks off up top to try and release some pressure. With fifteen minutes remaining Airdrie grabbed the lead for the first time in the game, a trademark long throw in from the right by Smith was nodded on by Cooper and as the ball squirmed away from the keeper Gray was on hand at the back post to rattle the ball home. This gave Airdrie all the extra incentive to find more energy with Newburgh piling forward. They thought they had the equalizer when they finally got a clear chance in the box however they could only find the base of Rowans left hand post and the ball flew away to safety. It was backs to the wall stuff for the last 5 minutes and Newburgh had there best chance yet to take the game to extra time, Airdrie tried to play an offside trap when a ball was crossed from the left, however the ref waved play on and their number 9 was left with a one on one with Rowan which the Airdrie keeper won bravely throwing himself at the attackers feet to block then getting up to parry away any follow ups. Newburgh had a few late corners but made nothing of them and Airdrie welcomed the final whistle when it came.
A superb performance from the ten men which shows that will and effort can carry you that extra yard and I’ve awarded the MOM to those ten players for what is probably the clubs finest result. Milton Amateurs await in the 4th round and we look forward to hosting them after the New Year. But for now the boys have a well deserved break and can toast a few shandies to themselves tonight.