Accies 1 Cowdenbeath 0: Saturday, 18 August 2001

Scottish League Division 2, New Douglas Park, Hamilton

Saturday, 18 August 2001

Accies finally recorded their inaugural victory at New Douglas Park with a hard fought yet well deserved victory over Cowdenbeath. Accies dominated most of the game but had to wait until the 73rd minute before captain Jim Sherry scored the only goal of the game.

FIRST HALF

Manager Ally Dawson had a few surprises in store with is team selection. We all knew that Colin Stewart would be introduced in goal instead of Graham Potter, but there were three other changes as well. I can only assume that these were due to a combination of injuries and poor performances at Cappielow last week.

OUT! went Eddie Cunnington, who was suspended. He was replaced by Michael Martin

OUT! went Martin Bonnar, to be replaced by Alisdair Graham

OUT! went Michael Moore, with Wale Kwick Ajet taking his place.

Accies dominated the first half but the only shot on target came from Cowdenbeath just before half time. To say that the first half was tedious would be to make it sound interesting.

Accies did have a couple of chances, but were never able to test ageing Cowdenbeath 'keeper John Martin. The best of these opportunities were squandered by Davie McFarlane (who blasted a 25 yard free kick 6 feet over the bar) and Kwick Ajet (who had a good opportunity to shoot inside the box but sclaffed his shot well wide.)

Just before the interval, Toby King of Cowdenbeath managed the only shot on target between the two teams, with Colin Stewart making a routine save in the Accies goal.

SECOND HALF

I don't know what it was that Ally Dawson said to his men at half-time, but he's clearly been on one of these motivation-skills type courses. Accies came out charged up and it was as if they suddenly remembered that Cowdenbeath had a rather dodgy old goalkeeper in their team. So they proceeded to shoot on sight and several of them were unlucky not to score.

Accies played much better football and Stuart Callaghan, Michael Martin and Davie McFarlane were all unlucky with shots which whistled just over the bar. Allan Russell had a quiet game in midfield although he did have a snap shot which went into the side net.

It seemed that the pressure had to pay off, although I was beginning to wonder if we would be held to another draw. Michael Moore came on for the ineffective Kwick Ajet and almost scored with his first touch when his header from a cross from the right shaved the post.

Finally, with about 17 minutes left, Accies got the breakthrough. Some fine passing play in midfield gave Alisdair Graham the chance to run towards the penalty area before squaring the ball to captain Jim Sherry. Wee Jim's shot wasn't the most powerful he's ever hit, but it was right into the bottom corner of John Martin's goal. Jim ran off in celebration and a huge wave of relief spread throughout the Accies fans.

Accies went for the kill after this but were unable to extend their lead. Cowdenbeath did threaten the Accies goal occasionally (particularly from set pieces, where their ginger centre half was dangerous in the air.) But the Accies defence were never under any real pressure and Accies held out for their first win at the new stadium.

Paul McDonald came on (to a huge ovation) as a substitute near the end, touched the ball once and was fouled. Some things never change.

IN CONCLUSION

Accies played a lot of good football in this game and should have won it by a greater margin. However, that's not going to happen until the midfield start to create more chances.

The defence was rarely troubled, even after the half time replacement of Ross Maclaren by Mark Nelson. In particular, Steven Renicks and Michael Martin did well down the wings.

Jim Sherry controlled much of what happened in the midfield, with energetic assistance from Alisdair Graham wide on the right. Allan Russell was used in a more central role than he's used to and had a quiet game. Stuart Callaghan was superb on the left.

Up front, I'm afraid Davie McFarlane is going to have to get used to being tightly marked this season. He did manage a couple of good shots but they were just off target. Wale Kwick Ajet did little to impress and could be heading for the subs bench again.

Accies will have gained confidence from this game. I suspect that the Forfar match next Saturday can't come quickly enough for Dawson and his players.

The Teams

Referee : Kenny Clark

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