Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Agony as Airdrie fall short in final
AIRDRIEONIANS ............................. 1 (2) QUEEN’S PARK ................................ 2 (3)
Andy Mcgilvray and Paul Thomson at New Broomfield
Callum Fordyce says the Championship play-off final came down to which team had the “bigger cojones” – and Airdrie ultimately fell short.
Queen’s Park ran out 2-1 winners in the second leg at New Broomfield on Sunday, adding to a 1-1 draw on Thursday, to earn promotion to the Championship.
But Airdrie captain Fordyce says his side have been through this before, and will bounce back from it, just as they did after last season’s final defeat to Morton.
Rhys Mccabe’s free-kick strike had given Airdrie and early lead, but Connor Smith levelled, and Simon Murray netted a penalty winner late into extra-time.
The 29-year-old defender said: “You’re gutted. You work all season.
“Football is a cruel game, but that’s play-off football – it’s two cup ties you’re playing for, the league position doesn’t actually matter when you go into that.
“It’s basically who’s got the bigger cojones to go and win the game, and unfortunately we’ve fell short.
“I think over the two games we probably didn’t do enough, or play our usual stuff, but that’s football.
“Football comes down to fine margins, and to get beat by a penalty kick is obviously a sickening blow, but we’ve fallen that bit short.”
Fordyce says there have been plenty of plaudits for Airdrie this season, but winning is far more important.
The 29-year-old defender said: “We’ve had a great season, we can’t take that away, and people come up to you and say you’re the best footballing side – but that means nothing, it’s about winning games and getting up.
“It’s all great to play nice football, but realistically you just want to win games.
“Credit to Queen’s Park – they came here, they’re a good, experienced side and hard to beat, and they maybe did a wee bit more than us on the day.
“But we bounce back from this and regroup, just the exact same as we did last year.
“We’ll get a well-earned rest, because the boys will say there are a lot of tired legs in there.
“You get your three or four weeks off and then you go again – that’s all you can do. The manager will recruit some players and that’s the story of football. It’s like a roundabout, it just keeps going.
“You’ve got to have that fire in your belly to go and win games.”
Just last week it was the Airdrie fans lapping up extra-time glory after an epic comeback win over Montrose, but on this occasion the home fans were left wondering what might have been as their nine-year wait for a return to the second tier goes on.
And boss Ian Murray said his tired side didn’t do enough at both ends of the pitch.
He said: “It’s hard to take. It’s very raw at the moment.
“But I’d like to say congratulations to Queen’s Park and I wish them every success in the Championship.
“Obviously our boys are down. They are on their knees in the dressing room, and rightly so because they put a lot into that - and the whole season. There had to be a loser and, unfortunately, it was us.
“It’s very cruel circumstances. “Losing the goal so quickly was huge. It was a terrible goal to lose, quite frankly. We’ve lost two poor goals over the two legs and you can’t do that in play-off games.
“We didn’t do enough in terms of probing and testing their goalkeeper.”
Having set a club record 20-game unbeaten run and pushing champions Cove Rangers all the way for the title, many felt promotion would be have been deserved.
But Murray knows these end of season shootouts are cut-throat.
He added: “Play-off games are really tight. We saw on Friday night with Arbroath and Inverness how cruel football can be.
“No matter what I say to the players and the supporters right now, it won’t take the hurt away but we have to look at the long term progress of where we’ve come from over the last three-and-half years. We want to try and build on that and come back better.”