Second half goals from Willis Furtado and Jake Hastie turned the match in favour of the Diamonds after falling behind to ten-man Forfar - despite almost total domination. 

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Airdrie were able to avenge their opening day league defeat at Station Park with a number of the former New Broomfield links from the early August fixture no longer there or absent for the rematch.

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The Diamonds made a number of changes from the side that lost at East Fife last week, one of which saw Under 20s left-back Josh Edwards come in to make his debut.

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Airdrie started the game on the front foot when a curling ball into the penalty area by Luke Watt in the first minute was just beyond Cammy Russell in front of goal while Adam Brown was on target with a fifth minute shot which Forfar keeper Marc McCallum easily gathered.

 

Luke Watt sent in a 30-yard effort after 14 minutes, but was off target. 

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Three minutes later Eddie Malone received a red card for a poor challenge on Ryan Conroy and a few minutes later when it was clear he was unable to continue, Tom Fry replaced him in the midfield with Kieran MacDonald donning the captain's armband. 

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The hardworking Forfar side were getting back in numbers, leading to a congested final third of the park toward the visitor’s goal.

 

Watt had a couple of attempts at goal blocked or taken by the keeper, while McCallum was also alert when Brown shot through a crowd of players.

 

Others had first half attempts that were not really threatening, although in 31 minutes after Willis Furtado and Brown combined on the edge of the box, Brown raced in and with the goal in his sights fired wide of the Forfar goal when the deadlock looked set to be broken.

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Two minutes after the restart Scott Stewart was on the end of Brown’s cross from the left but his headed attempt was collected by McCallum.       

 

The absence of Jordan McGregor for the second half exposed the Airdrie backline as Forfar showed their hosts the way to goal in 54 minutes.

 

As the visitors made the most of a rare venture into the Airdrie half, Ousman See showed good control before finding Matthew Aitken who squared the ball across goal for Dylan Easton and the well-travelled midfielder had an easy task to send the ball into the net.

 

Stewart’s cross four minutes later found Brown on the edge of the penalty area and his low shot was well taken by McCallum. 

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Airdrie were moving the ball more quickly and eventually pulled level in 68 minutes. With the visitors being pushed back into the final third, the ball fell nicely to Furtado with his back to goal. A quick turnaround and shot unleashed the ball in the right hand side of McCallum’s net giving the keeper little chance.

 

With ten minutes remaining Furtado showed great endeavour to retain possession and eventually his cross went all the way to the far side before being controlled by substitute Jake Hastie who hit an excellent effort into the top corner of the net, giving McCallum no chance to save. 

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Having fallen behind Forfar had a couple of close things in the remaining period. Rohan Ferguson made a decent save in the 86th minute when Furtado appeared to be taking the ball back into his own box, while the comeback keeper showed strong hands from a Scott Lochhead long range effort with two minutes remaining with Kieran MacDonald on hand to follow up and make the clearance.    

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A very valuable three points for one of the youngest ever Airdrieonians sides with 10 of the 14 players involved a mere 20 or younger. It also saw the Diamonds overtake their Lanarkshire rivals in the table.  

 

Referee: Mr Gavin Ross

Attendance: 507