Airdrie United 1 - 1 Alloa Athletic
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Airdrie United secured second place in the 2007-08 Irn Bru Second Division after coming behind to earn a point against likely play-off contenders Alloa. The point came at a price though as top scorer and player of the year Allan Russell limped off inside the first fifteen minutes after suffering a knock in an innocuous looking tackle with an Alloa defender.
Airdrie failed to hit the heights of the previous two victories over Ross County and Cowdenbeath but overall, the performance was still better than a lot of what we have been served up this season. The return to fitness of midfielder Graeme Holmes has certainly come at the perfect time going into the play-offs and he turned in another impressive performance alongside Kevin McDonald in the middle of the park.
Airdrie started brightly and had a few early chances, but lost momentum when Russell limped off to be replaced by Ricky Waddell. He tried to shake off the knock, but with the play-offs approaching fast, it was the right decision not to risk him further. We await official word on Russell’s injury status, but hopefully it’s not too bad.
Alloa took the lead with a goal not dissimilar to Hesselink’s winner for Celtic in midweek, Alloa winning the first and second headers to take the lead against the run of play. They should have been 2-0 up after Darren Smith made a horrible mess of a long ball but Scott Agnew’s finish was dreadful.
Airdrie in fairness didn’t really look like scoring, although not as unlikely as they have at other times in the season. The equaliser came midway through the second half when Bryan Prunty fired home after some good work from Holmes. The two combined again shortly afterwards but this time Prunty’s effort rebounded off the post.
All in all it was job done for Airdrie who now will finish second regardless of next weeks result down at Ayr, giving us the chance to rest Russell and perhaps some other key players for the playoffs.
Key performers today were Holmes and Marc Smyth. In general, it wasn’t a great performance, but it wasn’t too bad either and I personally am starting to feel a little more confident that we will be playing First Division football next season.
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