Accies 1 Montrose 3: Saturday, 17 February 2001

Scottish League Divison 3, Firhill Stadium, Glasgow

Saturday, 17 February 2001

TEAM NEWS

Accies were unchanged for the fourth week in a row which meant that Dylan Kerr had signed a contract until the end of the season.

The bookies had Accies as 2-7 bets for a victory, with odds of 7-1 available for the visitors. Manager Ally Dawson had publicly stated that there would be no repitition of the complacency which had been apparent in the home defeat by Albion Rovers in September.

FIRST HALF

Accies started brightly with a well worked and well taken goal by David McFarlane after only 4 minutes. Allan Russell slipped a nice through ball for Davie to run onto and he tucked it easily behind the visiting goalie.

So the fans sat back and waited for the goal rush to start. I think the players did too. Needless to say it never happened. In fact, it was the visitors who equalised 5 minutes later. Accies conceded a soft free kick about 22 yards out, right in the centre of the park. The Montrose centre forward Steve Laidlaw hit a powerful shot right at the bit of the goal being guarded by Ian Macfarlane. He should have saved it, but didn't and the ball flew past him for an unexpected equaliser.

To say that this goal stunned Accies is a bit of an understatement. It should have inspired them to greater efforts to put the lowly visitors in their place. Instead they beagn to play as if they had never met before, rather than being a really settled team. Passes went astray and gilt edged chances were missed. One chance which was scorned by Stuart Callaghan shortly before half time was positively criminal - he only had to place it beyond the Montrose goalie but instead tried to blast it with predictably dire results. He hung his head in shame.

So the mood approaching half time was that Ally Dawson would need to do some major work at half time to get his players fired up for the second half. Suddenly, Montrose took the lead with another simple goal. A long ball was hit from the left, right over Neil Oliver's head. Laidlaw ran onto the superb pass and tucked it beyond Macfarlane. Needless to say, Accies left the field to a huge and well deserved chorus of boos.

SECOND HALF

Accies began the second half with all the signs of a team which had lost confidence in their abilities. Any half time work which Ally Dawson had done was rendered useless just 4 minutes after the break when Montrose extended their lead even further.

Once again it was a simple goal which could have been prevented by routine defending. Montrose broke down the left and, when the cross came in, one of their players headed towards goal. Ian Macfarlane dived to save, but could only parry the ball into the path of Laidlaw and he tapped home from a yard out.

Now before that goal went in, I was of the opinion that Accies would come right back into the game and probably still win it. But it was obviously going to be one of those days. Accies created plenty of chances and missed some absolute howlers.

David McFarlane - missed from about 2 yards

Martin Bonnar - missed with a free header from 10 yards

Alex Eadie - headed over from a great Callaghan cross from 6 yards

Alex Lurinsky - shot straight at the 'keeper from a good position

3 Accies players - I couldn't tell who the culprit was, but a superb Callaghan cross from the right was ballooned over from a couple of yards out. 3 Accies players were chasing the same cross.

It was clearly not going to be Accies day and the visitors held on to claim all 3 points. Their 18 fans (I counted them) celebrated at the final whistle - and who could blame them? They deserved a medal for trailing all the way down to Glasgow for what appeared to be a certain defeat. All credit to them.

IN CONCLUSION...

I really hope that this will be seen as merely a blip on Accies promotion campaign. Accies did create enough chances to win a couple of games, but if you can't score...

The reports in the media will probably portray this as a well deserved victory for Montrose. But that would be lazy journalism. Montrose are no better than a mediocre third division team. What happened was that they caught Accies on a really bad day. To their credit, however, they defended well and took their three chances.

But as an Accies fan I have to say that this was another dismal performance in a season when we've had quite a few. It must be right up there with the defeat at Buckie and the league defeats by Albion Rovers and Cowdenbeath. It may well come back to haunt us at the end of the season. The only good news is that we still have a lot of games to play. The problem is that we really have to make the home games count.

Accies : Macfarlane, Martin (Eadie), Callaghan, Gaughan, Oliver, Kerr, Sherry, Russell (Davidson), Moore (Lurinsky), McFarlane and Bonnar.

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