Queen of the South 3 Accies 2: Saturday, 16 October 1999

Report by George Grandison

Accies failed to capitalise on last week's victory over Ross County as they were eventually overhauled by a poor Dumfries outfit, aided by some of the worst refereeing I have witnessed in 25 years of watching Accies.

There was little inkling of what was to come early on. The drive down to Dumfries was enjoyable with the autumnal sunshine turning the hills and trees all shades of green and brown and distracting yours truly who managed to miss his turning and took the long road to Palmerston, i.e. through the town centre! However this gave me the chance to see the injured Ian McAulay and two young non-playing teammates finishing their chips and carefully chucking their remains onto the pavement - you can take the man out of Lanarkshire, but.....

Anyway, the game began quietly with Accies playing confidently and stroking the ball around well. Last week's match winner David McFarlane was missing presumed injured (again) and was replaced by Steven "too wee" McCormick. The latter had the first real chance following a corner but his shot was weak and easily saved by ex-Accie John Hillcoat. Shortly after, Michael Martin did well to anticipate a cross and nip in front of the left back only to see his shot go inches over the bar.

Accies took the lead on 19 minutes when Eddie Cunnington robbed the Queens right back and knocked the ball square to Ferguson in the box. He had time to let the ball drift onto his right before placing a shot past Hillcoat from about 15 yards. Less than 2 minutes later and it was 2-0. The ball was played down the right wing to Nicky Henderson who ran on past the full back and from the corner of the box hammered home a great shot across the keeper and in off the far post.

Queens tried to push forward later in the half but created very little of note and Accies played out the half comfortably. The referee had proved somewhat inconsistent throughout, booking McLaren for an innocuous looking tackle and Ferguson for use of the elbow when it appeared that he was being pushed by a defender. The Doonhamers, in particular the veteran striker Steve Mallan, had spotted the weakness of the ref and were happy to make the most of any sort of challenge.

The second half started much as the first had been, with Accies in control and still the only ones trying to play good football. After a half hearted penalty appeal for Accies when the ref took the easy option - if in doubt give a corner - all hell broke loose. Eddie Cunnington was booked when he had clearly played the ball first and made almost no contact with Queens player/jt. manager George Rowe. From the free kick on the edge of the Queens box, Hillcoat lumped the ball down the park where Mallan went down easily (again) in the box. Ex-Partick Thistle dud Charlie Adams scored easily from the spot, sending Reid the wrong way. As Reid picked up the ball Adams and Mallan tried to grab it from him to race back to the centre circle and restart the game. Reid resisted until Adams punched the ball out of his hands at which point the Accies keeper stuck out his foot and tripped Adams - nothing nasty about it, just a good, old-fashioned trip. Adams though managed to roll over several times as the ref raced up to Reid and showed him a red card, much to Reid's and everyone else's astonishment. Adams had of course by now picked himself up and trotted back to the centre circle to take the congratulations of his teammates as Reid threw his gloves down, pulled off his jersey and threw it towards the ref as he walked off the pitch. Accies tried to reorganise as Nicky Henderson took over in goal and McCormick moved back into midfield to cover, leaving Ferguson alone up front.

It looked a tough task for Accies to hold on for 35 minutes, despite the fact that Queens hadn't been in the game at all until then, and it was almost made worse on 63 minutes when Michael Martin got tangled up with a Queens player on the far touchline. The Accies man got a bit wound up by his opponent and appeared to exchange blows. To most people's amazement, though, the referee chose to flash just the yellow card at both. Accies were starting to cope fairly well with the situation when they let in a sloppy equaliser in the 71st minute. Right back Martin was beaten and the low cross was missed by the diving Henderson for Steve Mallan to slide in at the back post for a simple goal.

It soon became one way traffic and although Dawson threw on a couple of subs, the move backfired when experienced defender Gordon Hunter mistimed his jump 5 minutes after coming on, giving away a soft free kick 25 yards out in front of goal. Accies' 6-man wall proved inadequate as Paul Harvey flighted a great shot into the top corner with 9 minutes left. Accies battled on with Darren Henderson moving up to help Ferguson and in the last minute, Ferguson won the ball in the air, turned away from his marker and headed for the penalty area. Another defender came in to cover and as the two collided, Ferguson went down. Maybe it was a penalty, maybe it wasn't but Ferguson appeared to genuinely go down in the challenge and did not make any claim for a penalty. Our friendly referee quickly took charge, whistling and sprinting into the box to show a second yellow card and thus a red one to the big striker who looked for a second, shook his head and trudged forlornly off, protesting his innocence. With the decent sized Accies support shouting well-deserved abuse, the referee blew for full time adding almost no additional time and made a hasty exit.

His name is Brian Cassidy. I personally don't remember him in charge of an Accies game before and I sincerely hope I never see him again. His performance was woefully inept, inconsistent and well below the standard of a Grade 1 official. Accies should make an official complaint to the League but probably won't like to rock the boat. Make no mistake, Accies were by far the better team here and should have won by several goals and climbed up the league table. Instead, they remain stuck near the bottom with two players suspended for the next match. That sort of display costs precious points that can cost players and managers their jobs at the end of the season.

It should cost this referee his job too.

Accies: Reid; Martin (sub Renicks 78); Cunnington; Davidson; McLaren; Thomson; Bonnar; N Henderson; Ferguson; MCormick (sub Hunter 76); D Henderson. Sub not used : Crossley.

An alternative opinion, by Ewan Lithgow

I' ve just read your report on the QoS match last weekend. Let me own up right off to being a Queen of the South supporter and as such you may not be interested in my opinion but there are, of course, two sides to every story and opinion. I thought you might be interested in my view of the match and its more controversial incidents.

I believe the standard of refereeing in Scottish football is generally poor but I think you are being a little harsh on Mr Cassidy. In my view he got only two significant decisions wrong in the match. Firstly, he gave Iain Ferguson his first yellow card for an elbowing offence on our player manager George Rowe. I cannot understand this decision as presumably if the ref. thinks it was deliberate then he should have gone straight off, if he doesn't then there's no offence so no booking.

The second thing he got wrong, as you rightly point out, was the incident involving Michael Martin and Mark Weir. I was right next to this incident and can assure you that Martin definitely threw and connected with a punch. I didn't actually see Weir do anything untoward but have been told by those on the other side of the ground that he probably did. As such they both should have been red carded and the only reason they were not was that he bottled it so soon after the Reid incident.

On the other incidents you mention I will say this :-

1 - If Eddie Cunnington made no contact with George Rowe perhaps you could explain why Rowe limped off still feeling the effects of the tackle within two minutes of it (the latest is he's struggling to be fit for Arbroath this weekend). My view was that it was a dangerous late challenge and a definite booking.

2 - Whilst the penalty was soft in as much as there was little danger and no dangerous challenge, Stevie Mallan was definitely and clearly pushed off the ball. You may not be aware of this but Border TV had a camera at the game and I can assure you that the footage clearly shows the offence, a stonewall penalty.

3 - I'm certainly glad I've never experienced a Hamilton "trip". Chris Reid took a sweeping kick at Charlie Adams and whatever rulebook you look in you'll find that's a sending off offence. I don't dispute that Charlie Adams punched the ball from Reid's hands and he definitely made the most of Reid's kick but that doesn't change the facts. We had Derek Townsley sent off against Arbroath last year for aiming a kick at a player and he didn't even make any contact. Reid did and he had to go. No options.

4 - As regards the second Ferguson booking for diving I can't really give an opinion. As I said earlier I was by the dugouts and was much too far away to tell whether or not he dived but friends in the same stand as yourselves said there was definitely no contact and no penalty. (Incidentally, the same friends also thought from their angle that Mallan hadn't been fouled for the penalty but conceded they were wrong on seeing the TV pictures.)

I wouldn't argue that Accies were definitely the better team over the piece and should have led by more at half time. We were very poor, one of our worst displays all season for 50 minutes and were never at the races until the Reid / Adams incident. There is no doubt that the whole game changed in that moment and I think perhaps you should look a little closer to home than Mr Cassidy to place the blame for three points lost .

All the best with your campaigns to remove the board and return to Hamilton, I know I'd hate to have to travel to watch home games. I look forward to our next meeting, after all you are still the only team we've beaten (Incidentally, you were much better this time. Did we catch your worst performance of the season the first time?).

Yours in sport

Ewan Lithgow

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