Montrose 0 Accies 2: Tuesday, 1 May 2001

Scottish League Divison 3, Links Park, Montrose

Tuesday, 1 May 2001

Accies made virtually certain of their immediate return to Division 2 with this fine victory at Links Park.

Montrose manager John Sheran had promised that his players would, out of respect for the other teams vying for promotion, have a real go at Accies. So it proved, with the home team creating several great chances only to be denied by a combination of poor finishing (including an awful penalty in the second half) and some great goalkeeping by young Graham Potter, deputising for the injured Ian Macfarlane.

However, the home team were, unbelievably, playing their eighth Tuesday match in a row and were unable to contain the impressive David McFarlane up front for Accies.

Indeed, it was Davie who gave Accies the lead after 25 minutes with a blistering drive into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Accies created several good chances but were unable to increase their lead before half time. The major sinner in this respect was the perpetual fall guy Alex Eadie, whom I'm afraid is not destined to be remembered as an all-time Accies great. He does make some useful contributions in the general lead up play but just doesn't have the knack of being able to put the ball in the net.

The second half was only 9 minutes old when Accies got that vital second goal. It began with a free kick about 30 yards out. Stuart Callaghan shaped as if he was going to float the ball to the back post, but at the last minute fired it towards the goal. The Montrose 'keeper just managed to tip the ball onto the crossbar, but it went out for a corner. From the resultant kick, the ball was played through the middle where Paul Gaughan got tangled up with the home 'keeper. The ball squirmed free and was rolled into the empty net by the surprising form of Ross Maclaren, who was immediately mobbed by his team mates.

While that ended the scoring, it didn't end the excitement. The most notable of these was when the home team were awarded a penalty after Graham Potter tripped a Montrose attacker. Just when we feared that Accies were going to lose a daft goal and suffer from terminal "promotion-nerves-itis", Jonathan Mitchell kindly blasted the ball well wide of the post.

This only served to fire up the home team and the Accies goal led a bit of a charmed life for a while. However, Montrose were unable to score and Accies held on for a great victory.

At the final whistle, the players went crazy and there was a mini invasion of the park by some of the fans. It was wonderful to see the delight on the faces on all of the Accies fans and players at time up.

Let's hope that they can go back there at the weekend and complete the job and WIN THE LEAGUE!!!

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