Cowdenbeath 0 - 1 Airdrie United
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Airdrie United ground out a 1-0 victory over Cowdenbeath at Central Park on Saturday to keep pace with league leaders Ross County. Man of the match Stuart Noble scored the only goal after top scorer Allan Russell had seen his penalty kick saved.
In truth, this was a pretty dreadful game with Airdrie failing to hit form and creating few chances of note. We could have been behind in the opening moments but Cowden hit the post and the rebound was well saved by Stephen Robertson.
Bryan Prunty then went close for Airdrie but his well executed volley was well saved by the Cowden keeper. The game then turned into a scrappy affair with both sides wasting a lot of possession and few chances being carved out.
Airdrie opted for a 4-3-3 formation with Prunty and Noble on the wings and a midfield 3 of Waddell, McDonald and Andreoni. Unfortunately, only Noble really benefited from the system and too many attacks broke down with Allan Russell in particular struggling to impose himself on the game.
Into the second half and Ricky Waddell won a penalty which Russell proceeded to miss - his second miss in succession. It was neither a great nor a poor penalty, but credit to the keeper for the save. Cowdenbeath then missed an absolute sitter, their striker completing mis kicking when all he had to do was tap it in.
Noble then won us the game with a well struck left foot finish. After that, Airdrie sat deeper and deeper and couldn’t get out our half although in fairness we didn’t really look like conceding.
In truth, this was a horrible game to watch, but it’s the kind of performance and result we’re going to need a lot more of before the end of the season if we want to catch Ross County and win this league.
Cowdenbeath 0 - 1 Airdrie United
Player Ratings
Robertson - not tested a lot, but did well when called upon (6/10)
Smith - moved back to right back and coped ok. A little naive at conceding free kicks around the box (6/10)
Lovering - not as good as recent weeks, but didn’t do much wrong (6/10)
Donnelly - decent shift, coped well as was often left exposed by the midfield (6/10)
Smyth - had us organized at the back, I’m a big fan of Smyth and thought he had a good game (7/10)
Andreoni - anonymous yet again, needs to impose himself on the game (5/10)
McDonald - tried hard as always but didn’t really happen for him on the day (6/10)
Waddell - another disappointing show from Ricky including some dreadful set pieces (5/10)
Prunty - didn’t seem comfortable on the right wing and didn’t work hard enough for me (5/10)
Russell - didn’t happen for Allan and missed the Penalty, but I’m sure he’ll be back (6/10)
Noble - our best player by some distance. Enjoyed his role down the left and anything that was going to happen was going to happen through him. Took his goal well, held the ball and put over some great crosses (8/10)
Man of the Match - Stuart Noble
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