Attendance : 1748

Well, although for longish spells - especially in the first half - this was the Airdrie attack against Rovers’ defence, the Cliftonhill lads emerged from the scoreless draw with great credit. In spite of the fact that the New Broomfield side comprised individuals who had never played as a unit, these individuals were, in the main, experienced professionals who have played at much higher levels - and it showed.

A training injury to Andy Paterson disrupted manager Peter Hetherston’s pre-match plans and Chris Silvestro had something of a torrid time at right back against McVeigh - Liam, that is, not the other one!

Ex-Rover Lee Gardner forced Scott Shearer into a fine sixth minute save and four minutes later Stephen Docherty passed up a good chance, sending his header well wide of the target. It was fourteen minutes before Rovers got near enough the home goal to cause any anxiety, but Airdrie ‘keeper Mark McGeown denied Iain Diack by flopping on the ball near the base of a post. Then Gardner again got in the act when he collected Jimmy Boyle’s through pass but could only plop the ball tamely into Shearer’s arms.

Following this, Rovers had a bit of a revival and in between two long distance free-kicks from Jered Stirling which flew over the crossbar, Silvestro, under pressure, fired past the post. United, however, continued to have the better of things - especially in the vital midfield area - but their finishing left much to be desired and the interval scoreline remained blank.

Within a couple of minutes of the restart, Gardner came within inches of opening his account when his delightful chip shot from around fifteen yards beat Shearer - and, fortunately for Rovers - the far upright. A spate of substitutions didn’t help the flow of the game and until the final whistle, there was little to excite the relatively large crowd.

To complicate matters for all present, Airdrie didn’t have numbers on their jerseys, made changes which the announcer ignored and even brought on a player whose name was not listed on the official team sheet! However, let’s be charitable and assume that the short timescale of the last couple of weeks made things a bit difficult.

After the match, Peter Hetherston was quite upbeat about the way his lads had played. "To keep a clean sheet was excellent for us", he said, "and although Airdrie had real experience out there, I thought we handled them quite well". The manager went on to say that to get such a hard ninety minutes was all pat of the learning process, it would pay dividends and that his team could certainly play better.

Airdrie United : McGeown, Boyle, McVeigh, Stewart, Brannigan, Vela, Wilson, Gardner, Glancy, Docherty, Ronald. Subs : Wilson, Armstrong, Taggart, Miller, Harvey, McGrillen, McGuire, Cherry.

Albion Rovers : Shearer, Silvestro, Stirling, Smith, Cormack (Weir 66), Lumsden, Coulter (Carr 53), McCaul (McKinnon 46), Bradford (McLean 58), Diack, Mercer. Unused Sub : Fahey.

Referee : Craig Thomson.