Report by Gilbert Mowat
That Accies lost this game was due to a combination of a strong Clyde team and an appalling referee, John Fleming, who made one of the most astonishing decisions I've witnessed in 30 years of supporting Accies.
Picture the scene - the clock has passed the 90 minute mark and Accies are launching another desperate attack to try to salvage a point. Suddenly, Darren Henderson takes possession just outside the box, brushes past a challenge from a Clyde defender and runs into the penalty area where he is tripped by another Clyde man. He goes down and the referee blows his whistle. PENALTY!! screams the Accies support. Inexplicably, the referee points to where the first challenge had been made, well outside the box. I hardly need tell you that the resultant free kick sailed harmlessly over the bar and the match was lost.
I tried, on the way home, to make sense of this decision. It could be that the referee waited to see if any advantage came to Accies from his allowing play to continue, decided it hadn't, and then awarded the original foul. That's justifiable under normal circumstances, but not when that advantage fails to accrue because the guy's been fouled in the penalty area! It had to be a penalty - and Accies were cheated of the chance to equalise.
Having said all of that, I think Clyde just about deserved their victory. Despite the fact that Accies had a lot of possession and the fact that Clyde did their best work on breakaways when Accies attacks broke down, they were a much stronger and more coherent unit than Accies. Significantly, Chris Reid made several excellent saves but David Wylie in the Clyde goal had so much time on his hands he could have gone for a stroll down to the pub without being missed.
The only goal of the game arrived with about 11 minutes left, a looping back post header which dropped in just under the bar out of Reid's reach. A lot of people will say that he's been caught out in this way several times before, but I think he deserves some credit for his overall performance.
But it's got to be said that Accies were a poor lot in this game. While it was encouraging to see Chris Hillcoat back in the team from the start, he looked unfit and out of position. It's not a good sign to see the left back trying to get the ball on his right foot all the time. I thought that the other three at the back (McLaren, Hunter and Gaughan) did reasonably well. The midfield, however, was abysmal. I like Steven Thomson when he's in defence, but he never was any good in midfield. Darren Henderson huffed and puffed to no avail and I thought he was heading for a red card in the second half. Ian McAuley is supposed to be the wee hardman in the middle of the park but he shirked several tackles in this game. Martin Bonnar is a promising young player - he's nicknamed Stan because of his likeness to Stan Laurel. Against Clyde, you definitely need a few more Oliver Hardy's.
Wee Jose again showed flashes of skill but he got nowhere against the Clyde right back. You would have thought it obvious for Dawson to mix it up by putting him on the right and Henderson on the left, but this never happened. Ian Ferguson had a quiet game and it could be that he's not 100% fit either. He was unfairly pushed when going for a header with 7 minutes left, but with the kind of refereeing we saw in this game it's no surprise that the penalty wasn't given.
So it was another defeat in this poor season. While it could be argued that we're now still only 7 points away from the third spot which brings promotion, I don't think there's any reason to be optimistic. We have to make sure that the ultimate horror of another relegation doesn't happen and then start to rebuild.
Talking of which, I heard a rumour at the game that Jim Watson has now signed the stadium finance deal with the Royal Bank and is urgently seeking a meeting with South Lanarkshire Council to arrange for planning consent to be issued. While it's patently obvious that the club will die if they don't move back to Hamilton very soon, I would be very suspicious of the terms of any deal involving Mr Watson. Then again, this could just be dodgy stadium rumour No 658.
Accies : Reid, McLaren, Hillcoat, Hunter, Gaughan, Thomson, Bonnar, McAulay (Crossley), Ferguson, Quitongo and D Henderson
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