Airdrie United vs Ross County Match Preview
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Airdrie United visit the last chance saloon on Saturday as wobbly league leaders Ross County visit New Broomfield, looking to secure the 2007-08 Second Division Championship. With just four more games to go after Saturday’s match, victory for the Highlanders would give Derek Adams an unassailable 13 point lead. However, on the flip side, victory for Airdrie could reduce the gap to just seven points - a long shot, but a shot never the less.
Despite last weeks 4-1 thumping of Peterhead, the truth is in recent weeks we have not deserved a shot at winning the league title. Put simply, we haven’t been good enough and have failed to turn up far too many times. The attitude being dictated from the manager for the past 5-6 weeks has been that Ross County were out of sight and it was almost impossible for us to catch them. Perhaps.
Even today, the league title is not yet beyond us. We have a squad capable of winning all of our remaining fixtures. And in their hammering by Ayr a few weeks ago and throwing away a 2-0 lead last Saturday, Ross County are wobbling. Stranger things have happened in football, which is why we must all support the team tomorrow.
But the reality of the situation is that had we beaten an average Raith side two weeks ago and a poor Ayr United side at home last Wednesday, we’d be facing a situation where victory over County on Saturday would reduce the gap at the top of the table to just one point. While realism is all well and good, what ever happened to the notion of giving it everything until it was mathmetically impossible?
Even if the league title is gone - we still have a very good opportunity to get promoted through the playoffs. For that reason alone, the manager and the players should have been absolutely focused on giving maximum performance to take us into the playoffs with momentum - something which is so so crucial in football.
In my opinion, there is a circle of negativity hanging around the club which is effecting performances, crowd mentality and crowd figures. I am all for calling a spade a spade, but we conceded the league title far too early and unless we buck up our act, we’re going to go out the playoffs without a fight. Look at the Scottish national team. What really changed between Berti Vogts and Walter Smith? Not a lot - could it possibly have been down to the sudden enthusiasm generated which gave everybody a lift? We all have to work together to fix this problem. That starts from the management and comments in the press.
So lets as a club all start to try and be a bit more positive. Lets have the management focus on the positives - for example, we have the best defence in the division, we have a free-scoring front two and we have a number of other good players such as McDonald, Holmes and McDougall in our squad. We have a lot of young players who will only get better, but we don’t hear about this often enough. If you’re own PR isn’t positive, nobody else is going to talk you up.
As a club, Airdrie United do have a great potential - we are NOT a second division club. We have a very good chance of playing in the First Division next year. In my opinion, we had lost the playoff last year before the second leg against Stirling kicked off. Lets not make that mistake again this year - lets give it 100% between now and the end of the season. As fans lets do all we can, get in out in numbers and support the team and do it vocally. As a club, lets try more to accentuate the positive, I am convinced it will make a difference.
Look at Hamilton - they sunk deeper than we did and look what can be achieved.
With regards the actual lineup, Graeme Holmes may well make the bench, while Mark Smyth returns from suspension. Bryan Prunty is a doubt after limping off last week.
Match Prediction: Airdrie United 1 - 1 Ross County
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