Managers Post Airdrie United

04/04/09: "Airdrie totally dominated the second half. It was a Jekyll and Hyde performance - the first half we were really good and should have been comfortably up by three or four goals.

Jim McIntyre spoke after the draw at Airdrie:-

"Airdrie totally dominated the second half. It was a Jekyll and Hyde performance - the first half we were really good and should have been comfortably up by three or four goals. The fact that their keeper got Man of the Match tells you that. He had a fantastic save from Glass. There were other chances as well; Bell's disallowed header that I didn't see an awful lot wrong with at all. The Ref has seen a bit of pushing so he has given it. David Graham should have scored and there were a couple of other near things. Some of football was great.

"We said to the players at half time to expect a different Airdrie to come out in the second half. Their manager wouldn't be pleased but we just didn't compete the same.

"I don't know how many times I have lamented our consistency levels this season, that was never more apparent than today. We had an excellent first half but were poor in the second half. We managed to get a goal out of it but over all the balance of play it was the original game of two halves."

The Manager dismissed questions that suggested that his team might now be more interested in the cup than the league.

"Nobody has mentioned the cup in our dressing room. What we mentioned was that if we lost today we could get dragged into a battle. If we had won today and results had gone our way elsewhere, we could have gone into a double header (with St Johnstone) having a wee chance. That is what we would have had but it is obviously going to be very difficult now.

"We have big games to play in before the Cup Semi Final and it is such a tight league from top to bottom that every point is precious."

Macca was pleased with the three strikes late on in the last three games.

"Greg Ross has come on and you are pleased to take something from the game especially after the way we performed in the second half. Overall in the balance of the game then we definitely deserved something from it because of the chances we created in the first half but we have got to be more clinical."

Jim McIntyre added that "maybe" could best the status to describe Jamie Mole and Scott Wilson's chances of making Tuesday night's game at McDiarmid Park. "They are 50/50 at the moment."

Airdrie United Manager Kenny Black was disappointed that his side had not managed to preserve their lead but was not surprised that they had tried to defend it deep as the minutes ran out.

"We have watched better teams than us protecting your goal by having everybody back behind it; it is a natural instinct to try and see out the game. It would have been a massive three points and I am probably more disappointed as I have been for a long, long time.

"I thought we deserved to win on our second half performance but first half they were better than us."

The Airdrie gaffer had no dispute over the three added minutes recognising that there had been three substitutes per side each warranting 30 seconds added but he did single out his goalkeeper to accept the blame:-

"The goal was the goalkeeper's fault, no question about that. Stephen Robertson has done really well for us this season but he is not a goalkeeper that is one who comes for crosses. He made a decision to come off his line to go and if he comes off his line to come and get it, he must get the ball. He didn't get the ball and it cost us the game, it's as simple as that."

It was a bit ironic that Stephen Robertson had just been announced Man of the Match when he made the mistake.

"It is an unfortunate thing, when you are a goalkeeper your mistakes get highlighted, none more so that today. He has been great for us since I have been here and I think that he is one of the best shot stoppers in the division."

Kenny Black felt that the result was a set back in his attempts to raise Airdrie out of the play off slot and up to eighth:-

"We had a good opening fifteen minutes, then they probably had half an hour up to half time. They were the better side and created a couple of chances. Second half we possibly shaded it and had a couple of decent chances ourselves before Darren put the free kick. I was delighted to see him scoring because he was left out of the team from the St Johnstone game and probably felt a bit aggrieved. We were seconds away from a very important win."