Clyde 2 - 0 Airdrie United
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Airdrie United missed the chance to secure promotion to the First Division after going down 2-0 to Clyde at Broadwood today. The Diamonds must now rely on Gretna going bankrupt to avoid another season in the Second Division after two second half goals killed off our hopes of bouncing back from Division 2 at the first attempt.
Despite the radio report of the game which made it sound as though Clyde controlled possession while we frantically chased the game, Airdrie came out the traps well and used controlled the play in the first half. Stuart Noble was put back up top with Allan Russell and the two of them were causing problems for the Clyde defence, with Russell in particular having a much better game than in recent weeks.
In midfield, Marco Andreoni was giving his best performance in an Airdrie jersey with box to box running and was displaying some nice touches and passing. We were forcing a number of corners and free kicks in good areas, but as always the delivery wasn’t putting Clyde under any real pressure. Clyde had a few good chances with Robbo saving well from Pat Clarke, but Airdrie had a massive blow when Mark Smyth was forced off after a nasty head knock which left him visibly dazed. Darren Smith replaced him, with Steven Campbell moving alongside Lovers at centre back.
The best chance of the half fell to Russell - the big man did brilliantly to create the chance for himself but Hutton got out well to block at his feet and the teams were into the interval level. Backed on by a large travelling support, I fully expected Airdrie to come out and win the game. Sadly, that didn’t materalise as a long punt up the park was misjudged by Campbell and Gary McSwegan nipped into score.
From there it was an uphill battle, not helped by referee John Underhill’s refusal to give a stonewall penalty when Bryan Prunty was fouled in the box just after the goal.
Clyde made it two-nil with a superb overhead kick by Clarke although the goal did come about because Lovers was out of position as a result of having a knock and our defence was a bit at sea. Fair play to the boy though, it was a great finish.
The second goal was a killer and the ref could just have blown the whistle as the game was finished. Credit to Airdrie though as they did make a real go of it today and if we’d scored in the first half I think we’d have gone on to win the game. Fair play also to Clyde - as a team they are distinctly average, but they did what they had to do which is more than we did last year and well done for staying in the division.
For Airdrie, manager Kenny Black now has to regroup and rebuild in the summer - replacing Allan Russell is his first task but we also need some creativity in midfield and also a bit more dig and bite.
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