Bell's Scottish League Division 2,
New Douglas Park, Hamilton
Saturday, 23 February 2002
Accies 0 Cowdenbeath 2
Brown 16
Elliott 83
Attendance 1284
Accies were plunged back into the relegation dogfight with this poor showing against Cowdenbeath. Just a week ago, many of the Accies support had notions that the club were on the verge of launching a genuine promotion campaign - but two consecutive defeats against promotion contenders Berwick and Cowdenbeath have totally changed our aspirations.
When I heard the Accies team I was very optimistic about our chances. Mark Nelson was replaced by the returning Ross Maclaren, while Kris O'Neill came in for the lacklustre David McNiven.
Accies dominated the entire match, although they were unable to create many genuine goalscoring opportunities. Kris O'Neill had a good chance in the opening minutes but could only shoot tamely into the arms of Cowdenbeath goalie Gary O'Connor. Several times the Accies players got into good crossing positions but the final ball always seemed to elude the front men. With Accies totally in charge of the game, it was something of a shock to the system when Cowdenbeath took the lead after 16 minutes. The entire defence seemed to be rooted to the spot as Graeme Brown ran onto a through ball and planted it past Michael Herbet in the Accies goal.
Naturally, this caused an increase in the tempo from Accies but they still flattered to deceive when going forward. Just before half-time, Accies had a very narrow escape when the ball ricocheted off the post with Herbet totally flummoxed. For all their territorial domination, there was never a time in the first period when I really thought Accies would definitely score.
To be honest, Accies dominated the game even more after the interval. The visitors were pinned back into their own area for long periods but Accies still found it impossible to get past the rock steady Cowdenbeath defence. Ally Dawson made a few substitutions, with the ineffective Martin Bonnar replaced by David McFarlane and the disappointing Brian McPhee replaced by the returning Jim Sherry. While these changes cheered the fans up to a certain extent, they did little to improve Accies fortunes.
With Accies up the park most of the time, it was inevitable that they would leave the occasional gap at the back. One of these errors was capitalised upon in the 83rd minute by Cowdenbeath substitute John Elliott, who chipped Herbet beautifully. This led to a mass exodus of Accies supporters and many calls for the resignation of Ally Dawson. The manager then made a very unpopular move by replacing Accies best player, Ally Graham with David McNiven.
Kris O'Neill had a couple of decent efforts towards the end but they didn't force a save out of O'Connor. Accies were denied a clear penalty when Michael Moore was bundled over in the area by the visiting keeper and one of his defenders. However, as Accies haven't had a penalty yet this season, it was no surprise that referee Thomson didn't give the award.
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It's hard to see where Accies can go from here. They are now 9 points adrift of second place in the league and will almost certainly not be promoted. I don't think they'll go down either, as they have too many good players for that to happen. This was a very disappointing result for the hoops and was yet another game that they dominated but failed to win. This has happened so many times this season that it can't be a coincidence. Defensive frailties are matched by a lack of creativity in midfield and a punchless attack.
Things will have to improve soon if this season is not to end in misery.
Accies: Herbet; Renicks, Martin, Maclaren, Sweeney, Graham (McNiven), Bonnar (McFarlane), O'Neill, Moore, McPhee (Sherry), Callaghan.
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