Brechin City 4 Accies 1: Saturday, 1 March 2003

Scottish League Division 2, Glebe Park, Brechin

Saturday, 1 March 2003

Report by k38jfb

Never before has the morale of both the players and the fans of a club, taken such a nosedive this season. Hamilton went in to this match on the back of a convincing 3-0 victory over Berwick Rangers in midweek. The result of that match made everybody think there might just be a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.

Well, come on. Getting gubbed 6-1 by Inverness on the Saturday and winning comfortably on the Tuesday was enough to make anybody think differently about our troubling situation. Brechin, after their midweek win at Stranraer, came into this match with better preparation and more energetic players. This was to be the vital factor in the outcome of this game.

Accies manager Chris Hillcoat made no changes to the team that faced Berwick on Tuesday. Going with the same players, the same formation and the same tactics was an obvious mistake. But no the other hand, he's not got much to choose from. Brechin were up for the match right from the kick-off. And their early dominance and pressure earned themselves a goal. Chris Templeman collected a Graham Gibson pass and converted from 20 yards.

Accies problem this season is that when they lose the first goal, they fail to keep the score respectable for a substantial period of time. This was to be the case once more. In the sixth minute, former Accie Kevin Fotheringham clinched Brechin's second. Fotheringham unleashed a vicious drive that left goalkeeper Graham Potter stranded. Accies seemed to learn from their initial mistake and stopped Brechin from scoring soon afterwards. Or maybe Brechin just decided to take their foot off the gas a little. As half time beckoned, the Glebe Park regulars scored their third and hammered the final nail in the Hamilton coffin. Previous scorer Chris Templeman found Gibson, who rounded Potter and finished with ease.

After the break, Accies played well and had most of the possession in the following thirty minutes. Then Brechin got back into their usual flow, and awarded themselves with a goal. Graham Gibson, who earlier scored in the match, grabbed his second. He latched onto Derek Clark's superb cross-field pass and finished from a tight angle. Chris Hillcoat obviously decided it was time for a fresh face to be involved in the match, and Ian Dobbins came on for Stuart Callaghan. The formation was switched to a defensive 5-3-2. It's a pity this change was not made earlier as the match was well over by this time and Brechin had ran away with the full three points.

As the Hamilton fans trudged out Glebe Park with their heads down at the disastrous turnaround of fortunes for their club, Allan Russell scored a consolation goal. Russell, who came on earlier in the half for Alisdair Graham, made the score seem a little more respectable.

Overall, not surprisingly, Accies took nothing from this game. Our inconsistency this season has become a constant excuse for our terrible performances this season, and the fans have got used to it.

Lets hope that the boys do the business against Cowdenbeath on Tuesday night, enabling us to move further up the league table and retain a respectable distance ahead of the Fifers.

Hamilton: Potter, Graham (Russell 62), Sweeney, Kerr, McDonald, Bonnar, Flynn, Sherry, Callaghan (Dobbins 84), Graham, Armstrong

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