Scottish League Division 2, New Douglas Park, Hamilton
Tuesday, 25 February 2003
This game was a disaster waiting to happen. A cold Tuesday night with only a small crowd inside the stadium. No Brian McPhee. Big Ally Graham was in the starting XI, along with trialist Peter Flynn. Berwick were doing very well in second place in the league and had drawn with league leaders Raith Rovers at the weekend.
So the smart money appeared to be on another home defeat by the hoops. Not a bit of it. This was a game where several of the squad played their best game for ages. It was as if they flourished by coming out of the shadow normally cast by Brian McPhee. Not that he wouldn't have added an extra dimension to the play, it was just that the players tonight gave the impression that they were trying that bit harder. Perhaps another factor in this was the on the field lesson they received at Inverness at the weekend.
Accies got off to a cracking start with a superb goal after only 8 minutes. Some determination from Martin Bonnar on the right saw him fire in a fantastic cross which was headed low into the corner by big Ally Graham, for his first goal since the opening day of the season. He was duly mobbed by all of Accies outfield players.
Accies should have settled into their stride after this, but they developed this annoying and potentially suicidal habit of handing the ball to the opposition. There must have been 4 or 5 occasions when misdirected passes gave the eager Berwick forwards the chance to run at an Accies defence that had a flung together look about it at times. However, apart from one opportunity when one of their forwards thumped the ball into the side net when he should have squared it, they didn't really threaten Graham Potter's goal. In fact, apart from field the usual ration of pass backs and cross balls, I don't think Potter actually made save in the game at all, such was the nature of Accies domination of the game.
Martin Bonnar was having an excellent game in midfield, snapping at the heels of the Berwick players whenever the ball was near him. I thought he was very unfortunate to be yellow carded midway through the first half for a foul when he appeared to have won the tackle.
There was a bizarre incident on the half hour when Accies seemed to be denied a goalscoring opportunity by the stand side linesman. Big Ally Graham had gone in with a hard tackle on a Berwick man about 30 yards out. The player was left writhing on the ground although the referee waved play on. Graham was seemingly furious at the apparent play-acting of the Berwick man and pushed the kneeling player to the ground. At this moment, the game was still continuing and the ball was played forward to Gareth Armstrong, who was a good 15 feet nearer to the half way line than the prone player. At this moment, the linesman inexplicably raised his flag to signal that Armstrong was offside. Maybe he made a mistake, or was suddenly flagging for the push by Graham 10 seconds earlier. Perhaps he forgot about the Berwick man or decided that he wasn't in "active play" - which of course can't apply to defenders. In any event the referee stopped play and booked Graham for the push - or the foul!
If that wasn't enough, the next event of any significance came after 35 minutes when Berwick defender David Murie absolutely scythed down the impressive Peter Flynn with a horrific challenge. He was red-carded and there were no complaints from the Berwick team or management. I kept an eye on Flynn as he walked closely by the entire Berwick bench after treatment and saw no sign of anyone passing comment on what had happened. Incidentally, Flynn had a useful game on the right wing and came close to scoring just before the break.
The reduction to only 10 men effectively ended the resistance of Berwick, although they had been the second best team on the night anyway. Accies began to really dominate in midfield and there were excellent performances from Gareth Armstrong, Peter Flynn and Martin Bonnar in particular. But the man of the hour was big Ally Graham and he doubled Accies lead after the hour with a superb goal. The ball was knocked forward to Peter Flynn and he rolled it to the big man just outside the area. Ally's curling shot into the postage stamp corner was supreme.
The game was held up for a minute or two at this point as three substitutions were made. Peter Flynn was the first to go and he was replaced by Allan Russell. Russell seemed to be in the mood and he completed the scoring after 70 minutes with a fine goal. A terrific crossfield pass by Gareth Armstrong left him in the clear and he ran on to place the ball just inside the Berwick 'keeper's right hand post.
There were a few half chances towards the end but nothing of any consequence. Accies ran out good winners and were applauded off the park at the end.
It's to be hoped that they can continue to play like this - although as we all know it's not quite as simple as that.
Well done guys!!!!
Hamilton: Potter, Graham, McDonald, Kerr, Sweeney (Dobbins), Flynn (Arbuckle), Bonnar, Sherry, Graham, Armstrong, Callaghan.
© AcciesWorld 2002
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