Do you believe in lucky numbers, or, conversely, unlucky numbers?  

It's fair to think that the Airdrie Irish do and so far 43 would seem to be the unlucky one for the Alberta Football League (AFL) team.  

After being beaten 43 - 6 last week to start the season by the Central Alberta Buccaneers in Red Deer, the Irish hosted the Edmonton Elite on Saturday at Ed Eggerer Park in Airdrie for their home opener.

The Irish charged out of the gate, taking an early ten-point lead against Edmonton and things were looking good,  After that though, it all began to fall apart.

Penalties negated some big offensive drives for Airdrie, with the team's defense also having injury problems that prevented them from slowing down the Elite offense.

According to Irish Head Coach Anton Bellot, the offense was also hit with a case of the dropsies.

"We've just got to hold onto the ball," Bellot says.  "We can't look to force things.  I appreciate all of our runners and receivers trying to go get those extra yards but ball security is of utmost importance here."

The end result was another loss, with another 43 being put on the board by the opposition as Edmonton captured a 43 - 26 win for their third victory of the season, without a loss.

Airdrie is still after their first win of the year.  

It was clear that many Airdrie football fans had missed watching their favourite game after the 2020 season was called off.  A great crowd turned out Saturday to cheer the Irish on.  Bellot says the support was rewarding.

"We want to really engage the community.  We want to be that sporting attraction here for the city of Airdrie so the support was a very positive thing.  A lot of the little things we've done.  We really want to make sure we have that outreach into the community, so I'm really glad to see that it's starting to pay off."

Airdrie will try for a W again this coming Saturday (August 7) with another home encounter when they face the Calgary Wolfpack for another 2:30 pm start.    Because of the AFL's pandemic-shortened, four-game season, the game will be the final one the Irish play at home in the regular season.  

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