Accies 0 Partick Thistle 0: Saturday, 6 November 1999

This was a game which Accies dominated but in which they failed to take any of their chances. I was a bit surprised to see that Steve McCormick had retained his place after his lacklustre performance down at Stranraer last week. There was no sign of either Iain Ferguson or David McFarlane. Given that they're both better than McCormick, I presumed that they must be injured.

I don't really want to go into all the detail of the few incidents which livened up this poor game. Accies came closest in the second half with the old "Aberdeen" free kick routine, where McCormick and Darren Henderson apparently fouled up a direct free kick. McCormick then stepped aside and Darren curled a beauty right into the top corner, where it was tipped onto the bar by the Thistle 'keeper. As Alan McInally said so memorably in midweek, we just missed that extra "half yard of luck." The other clear chance also fell to McCormick when he had a clear run at the Thistle goalie. Predictably, however, he made a hash of it by shooting straight at him. He was immediately subbed by Dawson, who brought on the impressive youngster Michael Moore. I don't see how he can persevere with McCormick any longer.

Accies really dominated this game. Beforehand I had been nearly tempted by the odds of 4-1 on the Jags which was being offered by the Stanley Racing chain of bookies. Their bookmaker must have seen Thistle recently - they're awful. They do have a couple of reasonably famous, if ageing, pros in their team, such as Ray Montgomerie, Albert Craig and Derek Ferguson. (There was no sign of Andy Walker, whom I presume must have moved on yet again.) But they are bottom of the league on merit and if Lambie doesn't take some major action, like resigning, then they must be in with a good chance of being relegated.

As for Accies, I was impressed as ever by Nicky Henderson. He really does stand out in this league and if the team had a decent finisher then we'd be in a much higher position. Thomson, Hunter and McLaren are fairly tight at the back and Crossley was quite good in midfield (although I thought he "crapped" out of a couple of tackles - he must have heard the rumours about Bolton.)

Darren Henderson, Eddie Cunnington and Martin Bonnar played fairly well although you always expect Darren to do something stupid during a match. He was the victim of a lot of provocation from the Thistle players, who must be aware of his volatile temperament. On the downside, I was a wee bit concerned by Ian McFarlane's handling - he spilled the ball a couple of times although no harm was done. Michael Martin at right back lacks confidence going forward so it will be good for the team when Steven Renicks is fully fit (he did come on for a short while near the end.)

All in all, it was a reasonable performance against a poor team. If we'd just had a little luck it would have been a well deserved victory.

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