THE THEME IS HOT AIR
Diamonds geezers eye last 16
RED-HOT Airdrie gave themselves a great chance of reaching the last 16, with a win over 10-man St Mirren.
With the mercury pushing 30 in searing temperatures, there was plenty of perspiration but not too much inspiration on show.
Justin Devenny’s 66th-minute strike was enough to separate the sides, before Kyan Gunn added a second in stoppage time.
He swept the ball into the net after Callum Smith’s shot had been parried by keeper Peter Urminsky, meaning Airdrie go into Saturday’s final group clash at Arbroath knowing a win could see them through the knockout stages.
Greg Kiltie’s 33rd-minute dismissal was the major talking point in the first half for the visitors, as Alan Muir flashed a straight red for a crude challenge on Airdrie’s Euan Deveney.
But Saints simply didn’t trouble keeper Josh Rae enough to merit progress from Group E.
Diamonds boss Rhys McCabe reckons the dismissal was key to his side’s win over the Premiership side. He said: “I think the red card changes the dynamic of the game, in terms of knocking the ball about, having that extra player.
“We made sure that at half-time the sole focus was on ‘we’ve got 11 players, they’ve only got 10’ and that played to our advantage, especially in the midfield.
“If we can work our passes in behind the back four and the midfield four, we can hurt them.
“It gives us a chance, that’s all we could ask, and we knew that before the game, what kind of game it was, and what was at stake.
“We said to them to leave nothing out on the pitch.”
Stephen Robinson labelled his side’s performance “unacceptable” and feels St Mirren “got what we deserved”.
The Paisley boss said: “There’s no dressing it up. We spoke about it with the players, we spoke about it as a staff and it’s unacceptable – we got what we deserved.
“Let’s not take anything away from Airdrie, with or without 10 men we didn’t deserve to win.
“There’s absolutely no excuses and I take full responsibility. I put the squad together and we haven’t matched people’s physicality.
“There’s no other way to dress it up, I can only apologise to the fans who travelled, and we need to now look closely to turn that around and make sure we’re ready to go for July 30, because we’re not going to qualify.
“I 100 per cent understand the fans’ frustrations. I take the blame but as a group of boys and staff it wasn’t good enough. It was a red card, it’s as simple as that.”