Managers Post Airdrie

16/11/13: JJ - "Airdrie can consider themselves that they got off a bit lightly ....

Listen to this Jim Jefferies interview

Jim Jefferies was pleased with his team's 3-0 win at Airdrie but puzzled over how it was just a three goal margin:-

"We carved out a lot of chances and were disappointed at half time to be just one goal up. The penalty miss made it hard again but some of our football was just excellent.

"When they went down to ten men it made it a bit easier but you still have to do the right things. You still have the same number of defenders to break down but I thought we were terrific and there were some outstanding performances. The laddie Smith was just exceptional - getting in behind; Byrne's running and Josh Falkingham controlling it in midfield. There wasn't a passenger.

"We play at a certain tempo and we said at half time that you could see one or two especially big Martin Hardie - who is great on the ball starting to just feel the pace. We had to keep up the tempo in the second half, keep passing it like we do, if we don't all we would do is make it a bit difficult for ourselves.

"The last twenty minutes with a man short upfront, they still had the same defenders to break down. Some of the passing and movement was great and if I had to criticise them, which I am not going to, they had an opportunity to score six or seven goals but three is fine and we will maybe save the other four or five for another day.

The gaffer agreed that Allan Smith and Shaun Byrne had taken their goals particularly well:-

"They were great finishes. Byrne in the first half looked like he had missed the chance but he has great feet, he turned inside and hit a good strike. Dargo was clever with his goal - that's where his experience knowing what areas to drop into. He showed a great finish as well.

"If you look at some of the chances we had, Airdrie can consider themselves that they got off a bit lightly at 3-0. We made hard work of getting that second goal and missed the penalty. If we had scored from the penalty I just thought that would settle them and it would be hard to come back from given the way we were playing.

"We knew the goalie was going to be sent off. It was a difficult one for the referee who I thought had a fantastic game. That's the best refereeing performance when it wasn't easy. Praising referees is unusual for me but I have got to say, this is the best performance that we have seen this year. Airdrie fans might have felt a lot of times that they were going to get the free kick but the referee was right in all those occasions even for the ones that were against us.

"I said during the game 'this referee is having a really good game today'. What was a good thing was that he talked to the players and in a manner that doesn't get anybody's back up. Hats off to him, he had a really good game.

"The penalty decision was made a hard one for the referee because the boy (Shaun Byrne) was going away from goals but there is no doubt that it was a penalty. If Byrne had nicked it past him he would have had an empty goal."

Referee Andrew Dallas

As well as appreciating referee Andrew Dallas JJ praised his own substitute goalkeeper coming on for his debut.

"Ryan is just a young goalkeeper with a lot to learn. He is still developing but that's what happens if your goalie goes off. You have to trust him and he never let us down. He had two good defenders in front of him; Callum Morris was outstanding, Kerr Young and the back four were excellent.

"When they had all their big boys on, Hardie, Lister, the two centre halves they are difficult to deal with. It pleased me that we dealt with it well because sometimes we have not dealt with it early and lost goals. But we got the goal and they had to come at us to get a goal. That's when we looked our best because we played some terrific football.

The Manager could not recall four keepers being used in a game and he was pleased with another win on astroturf:-

"We trained on it a lot when the training ground was heavy. This year we have trained on the grass a lot but we had a couple of sessions on Thursday and Friday. Our team can play high tempo and that should suit astro, they proved that.

"It was as good a performance as you can get and I told them that. We set a standard to live up to."

The gaffer concluded by giving assurances about Ryan Scully's injury saying that it was a bit of a dead leg on the knee but should recover in time for the match next Saturday.

Jim Jefferies praises referee post Airdrie match

Airdrieonians Manager`s post match comments