Following their recent disappointing performances against Albion Rovers and Cowdenbeath, this was a must win game for Accies. Ally Dawson clearly realised that changes had to be made and he didn't hold back.
Wing backs David Grant and Gary Lynn, midfield man Allan Russell and striker Alex Eadie were all dropped - in fact Russell was the only one of the quartet to make the bench. They were replaced by new signing Stuart Callaghan,Jim Sherry , Ross Maclaren and Dawson's old pal from his Rangers days, Robert Prytz. In addition, Ian Macfarlane had failed to recover from the injury he sustained at Central Park so young Graham Potter made his Accies debut in goal.
To be honest, this was a game which Accies dominated from start to finish. The introduction of Robert Prytz had a huge effect on the team. He was able to calm things down and played simple short passes to players in space. This allowed players like Martin Bonnar the chance to run at the ponderous Peterhead back 4. The visitors were only able to make occasional attacks and they were easily broken up by Chris Hillcoat and his colleagues in defence. It reminded me of Accies performances in the Premier League a lifetime ago. In fact, I think there was only one occasion in the whole game where there was a genuine threat to the Accies goal. That was a superb cross from the left in the second half which eluded everyone but just missed the far post. Graham Potter did make two excellent saves, but on both occasions the linesman's flag had gone up for offside against a Peterhead player.
Not having scored for about 7 hours of football, it was typical of Accies to then score two goals within the space of a minute. After 28 minutes, some fine play led to Ross Maclaren firing in a low shot which was well saved by the Peterhead goalie. The ball bounced up and was handled on the line by one of the defenders. Robert Prytz made a superb job of the penalty, with the 'keeper sent the wrong way.
Accies scored another goal almost straight from the kick off. Martin Bonnar ran through from the midfield and played a great one-two with a team mate before clipping the ball high past the diving goalie. The newspaper reports suggest that he scored from a cross by Stuart Callaghan, but that's just wrong.
A couple of minutes later, Michael Moore was desperately unlucky not to increase the lead even further, with a superb shot from inside the area which hit the inside of the post and bounced clear with the 'keeper nowhere.
So it was 2-0 at half time with Accies coasting.
The third goal arrived shortly after half time. Robert Prytz back heeled the ball to Jim Sherry out on the far touchline. He was allowed to run right along the goal line into the penalty area before hitting a low cross which the unmarked Mark Nelson tapped in at the far post.
The game went into a bit of a lull after the third goal, with the Accies players seemingly happy to settle for the three goal margin. We had the usual rash of second half substitutions, one of which saw the long awaited return of Steven Renicks from injury. Renicks in fact, had the ball in the net near the end, although the whistle had gone for offside a couple of seconds earlier.
Man of the match Prytz was replaced with 13 minutes left and received an encouraging ovation from the Accies fans.
While it would be foolish to read too much into an easy win against poor opposition, this was a reasonable performance by Accies. I was pleased to see Dawson take radical action after the game at Cowdenbeath and in Robert Prytz we have a player head and shoulders above most of the league. Stuart Callaghan made a good debut, although I thought he was underused in the second half.
Chris Hillcoat had a good game in central defence and even ventured upfield to fire a good shot just over the bar neat the end. Young Graham Potter was largely untroubled in goal, although he did make a couple of good stops which turned out to be unnecessary.
Accies : Potter, Nelson (Renicks 72), Callaghan, Hillcoat, Gaughan, Maclaren, Sherry (Clark 64), Prytz (Vaugh 77), Moore, McFarlane and Bonnar.
Peterhead : Pirie, Craig, King, Herd (Gibson 64), Simpson, Paterson, Cooper (Clark 64), Johnstone, Yeats, Tindal and Livingston
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