Greenbank 2-1 AS Airdrie

By C Mcfarlane
November 28 2005

GREENBANK 2 AS AIRDRIE 1


last yrs first division winners deservedly took all 3 points as airdrie fell to their first away defeat of the season at muirend.

a couple of late call offs left airdrie with 13 men so i set the team up in our usual 3-5-2 with kenny recalled to the starting line-up and rg starting at right back with gordie and buckles on the bench.

the warning signs were there from the start of the match.knowing greenbank are a fine passing team we had to close them down but 2 many times in the first half they got all the time in the world and by not picking up the runners airdrie were on the back foot most of the time with the number 7,8 and 10 finding a lot of room.airdrie had a couple of nice passing movements themselves and hendrie just failed to get on the end of a cross then clarky fired a free kick just over the bar. the number 3 found himself lucky not to be sent off though.after getting booked for deliberate handball he lunged in late on edgar and was very fortunate not to see a red card.edgar couldn,t carry on and gordie took his place. however after 2 or 3 near misses it was no surprise that greenbank took the lead halfway through the first half.good play down the left saw a cross to the back post and from the knockdown their player hammered the ball into the net with no one around him.they nearly made it 2 when the number 7 burst through from about 40yards and ran into the box but he fired straight at johnny who made a nice save.1-0 ht and lucky it wasn,t more.

the second half started a lot more brighter for airdrie.by working harder and closing men down they started to work their way into the game and got an equaliser from ross graham after 50 minutes.good play from ally down the right saw his cross missed by the keeper and from the ball back across goal graham nipped in and fired into the bottom corner.the next 10-15 minutes were quite even with little in the way of chances but greenbank regained the lead when some good passing found the ball at the number 7 and with space in front ran by 2 airdrie men and fired low into the bottom corner.this gave greenbank the confidance to surge forward again and twice johnny had to pull off good saves.in between this clarky fired a tremendous shot that shaved the keepers left hand post.the last 15 minutes the game opened up and by pushing men forward greenbank left a few gaps at the back and airdrie should have really made it count when at least 3 times they broke away with men in support but the final ball and indecision let the chances get away.greenbank should have wrapped the points up in the last minute when the number 10 tried to walk the ball into the net and made a complete mess of it though credit to gordie who didn,t quit on the play unlike some who stood and watched.full time 2-1.

in summing up we didn,t play very well but a lot of that is down to greenbank who,s first half especially, passing and movement was excellent and was the best we have came across in this league anyway.the second half performance was better when we shut them down quicker and moved the ball wide but on the day the better team won so fair play to greenbank.we have to keep plugging away but some of the boys need to have more confidance in passing the ball.we pass the ball well when we do it but we need to do it on a more consistent basis and especially at the start of games.a lot of the time it takes us going a goal down to get started.too many times we rely on long throw ins and long free kicks upfront so we need to vary that.a couple of times the day we took quick freekicks and nearly got a couple of goals from it cause the opposition were caught out by us taking them early so that is something to work on.

we have hard 3 games coming up and we will be missing the 2 pardoe,s due to suspension and a couple of injuries but we have to hang in there.

team

j rowan

r graham
g cooper
f burton

r hendrie
a edgar
s smith
k pardoe
n pardoe

a gray
a clark

g drummond for a edgar
g arbuckle for f burton