East Fife 1 Accies 2: Saturday, 30 September 2000

Accies continued their revival with a hard fought but ultimately well deserved victory against the Fifers.

This was Accies first game in the New Bayview stadium, with it's surreal view of the nearby power station. The stadium has only one stand, with the rest of the pitch being surrounded by a wall which was so low that the ball bounced over it several times. Ally Dawson kept faith with the players who had started the Peterhead game, with the exception being the restoration of Ian Macfarlane in goal, with young Graham Potter relegated to the bench. This of course meant that there was no place in the starting lineup for the impressive Allan Russell, much to the chagrin of the Accies support.

The first half was a bit of a non-event. Accies had a lot of possession, but were unable to create any decent chances. East Fife looked decidedly unimpressive and my ante-post fixed odds with them as Division 3 champions looks like being a disaster. Half time brought some relief in the form of a fantastic pie!

Accies got the second half off to a great start with a goal after 52 minutes. East Fife conceded a foul out on the far touchline and then committed one of football's cardinal sins. With their defence taking shape to defend the set piece, Rab Shannon made a substitution. Stuart Callaghan sent over a great free kick which the unmarked Paul Gaughan headed into the corner past the stranded 'keeper.

However, our delight at this didn't last for long, with Accies the victim of a bad piece of refereeing by Mr. S Conroy just two minutes later. One of their players fired in a low cross from the right which Robert Prytz intercepted. However, the ball spun up off his boot and struck his hand. The referee awarded a penalty after booking Ian Macfarlane for dissent and John Gallagher scored with a shot to Macfarlane's right which he nearly saved. Now I'm no referee, but I'm sure that there's something in the rules about handball having to be intentional before it can be punished. There is simply no way that Prytz's handball could have been deliberate. It was a clear case of "ball to hand", rather than the reverse.

After this excitement, the game settled back into it's rather drab pattern again. Accies continued to have the bulk of the possession but the lacklustre midfield area couldn't create any proper chances for the front men. The Accies fans were calling on Ally Dawson to do many things, one of them being to introduce under-used midfielder Allan Russell into the action. Dawson declined to do this, even when both Martin Bonnar and Paul Gaughan had to be replaced through injury at the same time. Steven Renicks and Brian Vaugh came on instead and although they did quite well, it was Russell who was needed in this situation.

It was quite funny to watch the antics of the East Fife stretcher bearers. They stood at the side of the pitch throughout the game (in their hard hats, of course) and you could see that they were desperate to get into the action. On several occasions, they were on the pitch before the physio, hovering like the vultures out of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. They looked genuinely crestfallen when they weren't needed. The only time they were used was when Martin Bonnar had to go off injured. In the event, Bonnar turned up in the technical area 15 minutes later, having had a shower and got changed.

Robert Prytz had a less effective game than the previous match against Peterhead. He was turning decidedly scarlet with his exertions and Dawson finally replaced him with Allan Russell with about 15 minutes to go. Russell had an immediate impact as the Accies attacks became more frequent and threatening. In one of these attacks, the ball was needlessly handled in the penalty area by a home defender and Stuart Callaghan made an excellent job of smacking in the penalty kick, much to the delight of the Accies players and supporters.

Nothing of any real note happened after this and Accies easily held on to win 2-1.

It was very encouraging to see how well the players responded to the fans at the final whistle, with a particular mention to Chris Hillcoat and Stuart Callaghan.

As Brechin City and Cowdenbeath both also won, Accies are still in third place in the league, six points off the pace. However, they are now five points ahead of the fourth placed group, so the league is beginning to split into two groups - the contenders and the no-hopers.

Accies : Macfarlane, Nelson, Callaghan, Hillcoat, Gaughan (Vaugh), Maclaren, Sherry, Prytz (Russell), Moore, McFarlane and Bonnar (Renicks).

- Read the fans' memories, or add your own, via this link.

- Please contact us if you have any information that will improve this page or if you spot any mistakes.

Images

Videos

Links and References