10/05/21

Airdrie Reaction: The Manager & Leighton

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MANAGER Paul Hartley and goalscorer Leighton McIntosh spoke to the media after our 1-1 draw with Airdrieonians at Balmoral Stadium in the first leg of our Championship Play-Off Semi-Final.

The second leg will be played at The Penny Cars Stadium on Tuesday, 7.45pm.

Paul said: “It’s in the balance, we knew it would be a two legged affair.

“It was a case of making sure we were still in the game when we go down there on Tuesday night.

“We scored a good goal and created a lot of chances but just weren’t clinical enough in the final third.

“We could have found ourselves two goals down as well, they had a great chance.

“All credit to the players for the way they fought back though, they gave it everything.

“The energy levels and quality of our football were very good.

“The game was exactly as I expected it to be, with two teams going at it.

“I expect it will be pretty similar on Tuesday too.

“The games between us have all been tight affairs and the players will be giving their all again to see if they can get the right result.”

Leighton, who scored our equaliser in the second half, said: “We always knew we would be going to Airdrie needing to win.

“After going 1-0 down, we are just happy to still be in the position to do that.

“It will be a tough game, but that’s the way it has been for us all season.

“Airdrie will be expecting to win now, but the boys know what getting through would mean to our club.

“We can take encouragement from the amount of chances we created after I scored the equaliser.

“If we can do that again on Tuesday we are confident we can take at least one of them and then it would be game on.”

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