Airdrie defender Craig Watson says striker Calum Gallagher accused him of stealing his goal in the 4-0 win over Montrose – but he was just worried he would be flagged offside.
Watson popped up with his second goal of the season, heading in Gallagher’s flick-on from a short-corner routine on the right, to put Airdrie 3-0 up on Montrose and effectively kill the game.
The 27-year-old says video footage suggests that Gal’s attempt wasn’t on target, and he was just making sure, with Lewis Jamieson’s hat-trick helping the Diamonds romp past their on-form opponents, to move them up to sixth in League One.
He said: “It was by no means a spectacular goal but they all count.
“It was actually quite funny – Gal said I took the goal off him, but watching it back it could potentially either have hit the post or gone wide, so it was just as well I made sure it was going in.
“I was actually quite worried immediately, I thought I was going to be offside and I had taken a goal off him, but thankfully that wasn’t the case!
“It was an important goal. They always say that 2-0 is such an unpredictable score-line, but 3-0 just tends to be that one step too far for a team to come back from.
“I’m not saying it can’t be done, it has been done, and especially in games between us and Montrose!”
Watson says nobody was taking the three points for granted, especially as they were on a run of five league games without a win prior to Saturday.
He said: “Myself and others were saying at half-time that just because it’s 3-0 doesn’t mean it’s over.
“Just look at the past quarter season, there is definitely still goals in this, so we just need to make sure it’s not against us.
“Thankfully LJ popped up with his hat-trick goal in the second half, just to put the final nail in the coffin.
“It was important to get the three points.
“It has been such a frustrating period. Stats-wise it’s not actually been that bad, we’ve been keeping possession, we’ve just been quite wasteful up front and leaking really silly goals from individual errors.
“It’s not as if any team has been cutting us open with really nice football or whatever, most of the goals have been down to our own sloppiness.
“The gaffer [Rhys McCabe] said after the game that he was mostly pleased with the clean sheet.
“It’s something we took pride on last season and at that start of this one, but unfortunately it has slipped away.
“But I’m delighted, as a centre-back, to get that clean sheet. I thought the four defenders, the gaffer sitting and Dean Lyness in goals were fantastic, working together as a team.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
