Clydebank 0 Accies 0: Saturday, 10 April 1999

Accies went into the first of five "winnable" matches (according to Colin Miller), boosted by the return from long term injury of goalkeeper Chris Reid, who was making only his second appearance after having been signed from Hibernian in the summer. Michael Geraghty lined up to resume the partnership with Gary Wales which had looked so promising in the autumn. Boghead was it's usual self - a complete heap with big puddles and patches of thick mud everywhere. Apparently, Dumbarton have put 250 tons of sand on it this season and three of the four drains under the pitch have collapsed.

We arrived at the game about ten minutes late thanks to the heavy traffic caused by the Celtic V Dundee United cup semi final at Ibrox. And by the bloody stupid woman in a red Fiesta "Firefly" who nearly gave me heart failure by pulling out in front of me on the M8. We did arrive in time to witness Michael Geraghty miss the best chance of the match halfway through the first half. He turned beautifully in the box before hitting a tame shot which was easily saved by Colin Scott in the Clydebank goal. Accies were definitely the better team in the first half and I can't imagine an easier return to the team for Chris Reid at the other end of the park.

Clydebank came into the game in the second half, but I can't remember either 'keeper having to make a good save. There was the usual rash of substitutions in the second half. Nicky Henderson was the first to go, being replaced by Marco Rajamaki. That one I could understand. However, when he replaced Michael Geraghty with Michael Moore with about 10 minutes left there was a huge chorus of boos from the Accies support. Here we were, in the dying minutes of a game which had to be won, replacing our most dangerous player with an inexperienced youngster. I would have preferred to see Miller throw caution to the wind and play with three up front to try to win the game. Needless to say, nothing came of it, apart from a ridiculous booking for Moore near the end. The ball was cut back to him at the edge of the box but a Bankies player nicked it off his toe just as he swung his left boot to shoot. The Bankies player went down in a heap and Moore was unjustly booked.

As we left the ground there was a huge amount of abuse directed at Colin Miller. Not, I hasten to add, at the players. That's Accies 6 points adrift with 4 games left. You can't expect to survive when you haven't won a league game for 21 matches including 9 consecutive defeats.

Barring a miracle, it's the seaside league for us next season.

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