Accies 2 Forfar Athletic 0: Saturday, 15 March 2003

Scottish League Division 2, New Douglas Park, Hamilton

Saturday, 15 March 2003

Report by Gilbert Mowat

Accies continued their recent revival with this 2-0 win against a Forfar team that had beaten the champions-elect, Raith Rovers, in midweek. Before the game the Forfar manager, Ray Stewart, said he hoped that his team would be as deadly in front of goal as they had been in midweek. If that had been the case, then they would have been making the long journey back north with some if not all of the points.

Accies boss Chris Hillcoat made no changes to the starting X1 that defeated Airdrie in midweek, which meant that top scorer Brian McPhee had to be content with a place on the bench. As it turned out, this was to be a prudent decision by the coach, who in addition named himself as one of the substitutes. The Forfar team contained a couple of Accies players from the Cliftonhill and Firhill wilderness years, in the shape of the blonde Darren Henderson and the chunky Scott McCulloch.

The game was delayed by 30 minutes due to the Forfar bus getting caught in various sets of roadworks on the way. I have to confess that I feared that worse things were happening when I arrived at 2.45 pm to find the turnstiles closed and a crowd gathering outside. Accies settled better into the game and were agonisingly close to taking the lead after about 15 minutes, when Martin Bonnar took advantage of a Forfar man standing on the ball. He got to the byeline and cut it back for Big Ally Graham. His shot from the edge of the area was a screamer but crashed down off the underside of the crossbar and was cleared.

It didn't take long for Accies to take the lead, however. The ball was worked in from the left wing to Gareth Armstrong at the edge of the area. He controlled the ball superbly before wrongfooting Michael Brown in the Forfar goal with a low shot. Accies had a couple of other near things before half time, with Dylan Kerr missing out on a couple of occasions. First of all, he hit the post from close-in after a corner and then saw Brown clutch his brilliant free kick just under the bar. For their part, the visitors did well on the break and were thwarted by a combination of poor finishing and alert defending by Ian Dobbins and Dylan Kerr in particular.

The pattern continued in much the same vein in the second half, with Accies enjoying the bulk of the possession but the visitors looking lively on the break. The visitors attacked right from the kick off and one of their forwards wasted a clear chance within the first minute, when his pathetic attempt to lob Graham Potter was easily held by the Accies 'keeper. The Accies defence repeated their standard practice of defending really deep in their own half when under pressure. On one of these attacks, Graham Potter punched a corner kick onto his own goal post. It has to be said that an equaliser for the visitors would have been justified at this stage - and it looked to be inevitable.

However, I'm happy to tell you that they never got that goal. There was only one more goal in the game, and it was an absolute cracker. Substitute Brian McPhee, who had not done particularly well since he came on with half an hour to go, sent over a fantastic cross to the back post towards Gareth Armstrong. Given Gareth's recent improvement, it shouldn't have been a surprise. But he caught the ball beautifully on the drop and it whistled into Brown's bottom corner to make the game safe.

Just before that, Big Ally Graham squandered a great opportunity to extend the lead when he chested down a great cross by Paul McDonald before volleying the ball just over the crossbar.

I thought that the defensive group of Potter, Graham, Kerr, Dobbins and McDonald did well, with wee Paul outstanding as the left wing back. He seems to offer more both defensively and going forward, than first choice Eddie Cunnington. Dylan Kerr caught the eye too, and was unlucky not to find the net on a couple of occasions.

In midfield, Martin Bonnar put in his usual shift and was critical to Accies success. It's unfortunate that he will miss the next two matches through suspension. I thought that Jim Sherry and Stuart Callaghan had games that could only be described as mediocre. That's unfortunate, when your midfield also includes Allan Russell. Russell looks like a footballer and thinks that he is one. If he had an appetite for hard work, he might develop into a good midfielder. At the moment however, the jury is out.

Up front, the pairing of Gareth Armstrong and Big Ally Graham did pretty well, with Gareth getting the vote as the sponsors man of the match. He did score two crackers so it's hard to argue, but I was very impressed also with Martin Bonnar and especially Paul McDonald. If Accies can continue to show this level of commitment, those fears of relegation will soon be all forgotten.

Hamilton: Potter, Alisdair Graham, Dobbins, Kerr, McDonald, Armstrong, Bonnar, Sherry, Callaghan (McPhee 60), Russell (Flynn 79), Alistair S Graham. Subs: Hillcoat, McPhee, Walker, Flynn, McFarlane.

Forfar Athletic: Brown, Henderson, McCloy, Greacen, McCulloch, Sellars, Lunan, Byers, Anthony, Tosh, Bavidge. Subs: Milne, Stewart, Hodge, Cocozza, Ferrie.

Referee: J Gilmour

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