Championship new boys Airdrie were the visitors to NDP on Saturday in a first ever meeting between the two sides to round off our respective Viaplay Cup Group campaigns.

The sides went into the clash in contrasting form with Rose having suffered narrow defeats to Inverness and Dundee respectively before a 0-0 draw at Dumbarton. Airdrie on the other hand were aiming to end the group with a perfect record of 4 wins from 4 after already defeating Dumbarton, Dundee and Inverness.

The game started in ferocious fashion as Charlie Telfer was booked with barely a minute on the clock for wiping out Jason Jarvis right in front of the home dugout. That seemed to fire Rose up as a couple of minutes later Smart Osadolor got in behind and had the first chance of the game but his strike from the edge of the box was well saved by Rae in the Airdrie goal. The opening 30 minutes saw both teams enjoy decent spells with Josh O’Connor and Callum Fordyce coming close for Airdrie and Lee Currie almost giving Rose the lead, only to be denied by a superb block by Cammy Ballantyne.

Reis Peggie was next to threaten with 5 minutes of the half left, as he cut in from the left to unleash a superb strike which went narrowly past Rae’s post. Airdrie responded right away with a chance through Callum Gallagher who almost got onto a good through ball but Paddy Martin was quick off his line to sweep up the danger. Despite the best efforts of both sides, an entertaining first half ended goalless.

Into the second half and the wind picked up which seemed to have an affect on Rose getting out of their own half. Airdrie began to control the game as a result and with 20 minutes to go they’d get their breakthrough. Josh O’Connor, who didn’t stop running all game chased down what looked like a lost cause to create confusion in the Rose defence, resulting in him being fouled in the box by Paddy Martin. O’Connor would dust himself down to take the spot kick which was tucked away by the Hibernian loanee for his first in Airdrie colours.

The final 15/20 minutes would see Rose try to get the equaliser with a couple of half chances, the fact that Airdrie were content on keeping the ball in the corner in the closing minutes was testament to the tough test that they had been presented with by Robbie Horn’s men. Ultimately the visitors would see out the remaining minutes to make it four wins from four in an impressive group campaign. We wish Rhys McCabe and his men all the best for the rest of the competition and for the season.

Despite another narrow defeat, it was another solid performance against a full time Championship side with gaffer Robbie Horn once more taking plenty of positives ahead of the league opener on Saturday against Dumbarton.

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