Saturday 13th April, 2013 at 9:43pm
The events of yesterday afternoon left just about everyone breathless with excitement at the finish.
ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Alan Archibald amidst the bustle of the Airdrie United press room and he admitted that he had never experienced anything quite like the last few minutes.
“I’ve never seen a finish like that. It was quite remarkable to be honest. The performance wasn’t fantastic but I thought that we deserved it.”
Alan continued;
“We stressed before the game that it would be great if we got an early goal just to see how Airdrie would react. They’ve had a couple of poor results recently and that was after teams scored early goals. We knew it was important too to score the first goal based on what happened here the last time when they scored first and had something to hang on to. I thought their goal today came against the run of play and just like the last time it gave them something to hang on to.”
That goal came as a result of a rare slip at the back. Said Alan;
“It was just a wee mix up at the back. I thought that Andy Dowie had a wee chance to switch out to the other side; there were two men over the other side. There was a mix up and before you know it we were 1-0 down.”
Alan confessed that with time running out he didn’t think that a goal was going to come.
“I didn’t think it was going to come. I thought when Chris Erskine got through on goal and got pulled down and the player got booked that that was our chance. Andy Dowie’s had a couple of headers too that have been straight at the keeper and I did think that it might not be our day.”
It was one of Alan substitutes, Christie Elliott, that sealed a dramatic win.
“We were just juggling things about when we put Christie on. We put him on wide at first and had Chris Erskine up with Kris Doolan and try and get them to link up; we know how they link up in training. As time went on in the last five minutes it was important that we got Christie right up top with Kris Doolan and it paid off. He came on at Hamilton and scored and he’s done the same today and I’m absolutely delighted for him.”
To say that Christie’s goal sparked scenes of wild celebration would be something of an understatement.
“It was bedlam. It was bedlam in the dugout as well so it was hard to see what was happening over on the other side. I’m delighted for the fans. They’ve turned out in numbers, about 1,400 I think. They were fantastic the other night and they were brilliant again today. They kept singing right the way through the game even when things weren’t going well for us.”
Was Alan aware that Morton were losing?
“Somebody told us at half-time, I think one of the boys that wasn’t playing, and let us know. And that was even more disappointing because we weren’t capitalising on that.”
And Alan’s emotions at full-time?
“I think it was relief and delight all rolled into one. It’s important now that we start to prepare for Tuesday. We’ll be in tomorrow to start doing that. We want to try and win the league at Firhill, in front of our own fans.”
