Accies 0 Albion Rovers 2: Saturday, 9 September 2000

This match will be long remembered as the lowest point in Accies recent history. People of my vintage wince at the thought of the home cup defeat by Keith or the eight goal drubbings handed out by Celtic in the Premier League. But I can't remember a more pathetic display by an Accies team than the one I witnessed in this game.

It's not as if Albion Rovers were that good. Unfortunately, they didn't have to be as they were playing an Accies team with absolutely no appetite for hard work or the imagination to break down a solid defence.

Things had started quite brightly and Accies were well in control for the opening 12 minutes before the first goal. Some neat midfield play left their midfielder Booth with the chance to shoot low past Ian Macfarlane. This was the first goal Accies had conceded in the league and my initial thought was that we would now get to see what the team was really made of.

Well, in my opinion the Accies players showed that they just do not have the bottle to get stuck into the opposition when things are going against them. You would expect the league leaders to react very badly to any threat to their supposed superiority and really go for the throat.

Not a bit of it. Accies confidence vanished and they allowed Rovers to take charge of the game. There was no genuine threat to the Rovers goal until late in the second half, when Bill Davidson brought a good save out of the visitor's keeper. Of course, by that time Rovers were 2-0 up, thanks to a nicely taken goal by their centre forward Begue, who ran onto a long punt forward to neatly lob the ball over the exposed Macfarlane. Criminally, none of the Accies defence matched his run - it was as if they could not believe his impudence.

So it was 2-0 to the Rovers at half time and Ally Dawson had to make some changes. To my great surprise, he took off Accies best player of the first half, Allan Russell, as well as wing back David Grant. The two replacements were Davie McFarlane and Chris Hillcoat. I don't understand why Dawson insists on leaving Accies best forward player, McFarlane, out of the team so often.

Anyway, a shocking incident 10 minutes after half time sealed Accies defeat. For no apparent reason, Jim Sherry (who had just extended his loan from Livingston into a second month), thrust his studs into the thigh/groin/stomach of one of the Rovers players. This led to one of those stupid "stramashes", with everyone doing a bit of pushing and shoving. When the dust settled (and the poor guy got some treatment), Sherry was sent off and two Rovers players were booked. When the linesman saw that the referee was taking no action against Michael Moore, he called over the ref and Moore was also booked.

It was interesting that the Rovers No 4 ran the length of the park to get involved in the melee. Just a few minutes later, he "halfed" Michael Moore from behind but the referee (a Mr C Thompson in his first season as a grade 1 official), failed to book him again, much to the astonishment of the Accies fans.

Shortly after this, Rovers nearly went 3-0 up when a close range header hit the post with Macfarlane beaten. Before the end, there were several other Accies players booked. Chris Hillcoat was lucky not to be sent off for a fresh air kick at an opponent and Gary Clark was similarly lucky not to go for a bad foul near the end.

By this time, of course, a lot of the fans had voted with their feet and left them to it. Cries of "Taxi For Dawson" were heard around the ground.

It's hard to take anything positive from this game. I think the only players I would actively praise would be Ian Macfarlane, Allan Russell and perhaps Bill Davidson. Paul Gaughan looked ponderous and clumsy at the back and David Grant has, in my opinion, become a regular before he's ready. Mark Nelson doesn't look up to much. The midfield really struggled to make any impression, although I thought that Jim Sherry was striking his passes with much more authority than in previous matches. He did get a lot of abuse as he left the park and it must be said that this was understandable. His foul was totally out of context with what had gone before and, for a man just recovered from a serious injury, difficult to sympathise with. Martin Bonnar was totally anonymous in midfield and Gary Lynn had a bad game. He did have a shooting chance late in the second half but his effort was sliced out for a throw in.

Up front, Alex Eadie showed the kind of form which kept him in the juniors for so many years. I'm sorry, but he just reminded me of other dodgy Accies strikers of recent years like Danny Diver or Dugald McCarrison. He just isn't good enough and puts in too little effort. Michael Moore isn't really any better when played through the centre, although he has done quite well in recent matches when pushed out to the left. I'm still a David McFarlane fan and don't know what Ally Dawson has against him.

Chris Hillcoat looked OK when he came on at half time, but the malaise in the team got to him as well and his passes started to go astray as well. Perhaps, if he's fully fit, he could come back into the centre of defence and allow Davidson to move forward into midfield where his ability could be better uitlised.

But there are no positives to be taken from this game.

Accies were rubbish and the better team won.

Accies : Macfarlane, Grant (Hillcoat), Lynn, Davidson, Gaughan, Nelson, Russell (McFarlane), Eadie, Sherry, Moore (Clark) and Bonnar.

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