Deniz is Airdrie’s menace
Sunday, 23rd Apr 2023DM:- “I apologised to a couple of the Airdrie boys saying ‘look I’m really sorry but we want to extend our unbeaten record as much as we can and keeping it going’
The sound of the final whistle in the fifth minute of time added on at the end of the match against Airdrieonians, was a great relief admitted Pars goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet. The chance to make it 24 shut outs for the season had gone when Calum Gallagher forced in the 62nd minute equaliser but Deniz’s priority swiftly changed to maintaining the Pars unbeaten run.
The red cards shown to Kyle Benedictus in 63 minutes and Kevin O’Hara just eight minutes later, left Dunfermline with nine men against an Airdrieonians side that are the league’s top goalscorers. Prior to Saturday the Diamonds had averaged three goals per game at home in the league so to defend that proud unbeaten record was going to be quite an achievement. Deniz related his fears as he and his team mates were put under incessant pressure:-
“Unfortunately the clean sheet got taken away from us. Then you felt it was going to happen again when they are knocking on our door so many times especially towards the end of the game. I just wanted to get to the final whistle, counting down the minutes. It wasn’t going as fast as other games have gone, it was a bit of a different pressure but the boys rode it out fantastically.
“It was a busy afternoon, it was a good game with two footballing teams really going for it. I found it a bit of a basketball game at times but it was definitely an exciting one for the fans. The boys dug in well at the end and all credit to them for their work rate.”
Dunfermline knew that Airdrieonians were going to be difficult opponents and Deniz had looked at it as only a goalkeeper would:-
“They are the only team that we have not kept a clean sheet against in the league. The two red cards changed the dynamics of the game massively. We just banked in and made it really difficult for them to break us down.
“All credit to the boys especially the attacking players who are not defensively minded. No disrespect to them but their job is attacking. Everyone pulled their sleeves up and worked really hard. They sat in and you’d have thought that we had eight defenders on the pitch and me. Fair play to them.”
He claimed that retaining the unbeaten record was a product of hard work:-
“You saw it on Saturday and I’ve seen it all season. The boys have worked so hard day in day out and it shows in what they do.”
After a multitude of Airdrieonians attempts at goal in the final twenty minutes, the nine men saw the match out to make it 22 league games without defeat and Deniz said:-
“It was a relief to me because I was desperate to try and keep it going. I apologised to a couple of the Airdrie boys saying ‘look I’m really sorry but we want to extend our unbeaten record as much as we can and keeping it going’. They are a good team and I think they will be a good competitor in the play-offs.”
Deniz’s final compliments were to the travelling supporters, he closed:-
“It is nice that we have given them something to cheer about this season after what was a disappointing season last year. They were there in numbers, in full voice and in good form. It was good for them to get another good day out of us.”
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