Scottish Cup Round 4, Caledonian Stadium, Inverness
Saturday, 22 February 2003
Report by George Grandison
Accies' so-called cup run came to a crashing end in the Highland capital as the home team ran out very comfortable winners and Accies were given a second half footballing lesson.
The day started with a worrying early pitch inspection but thankfully ref John Rowbotham passed the pitch fit for play. By 4.15 Accies were wishing he hadn't. The pre-match hospitality in the Kingsmills Suite was excellent and we took our seats for kick-off in glorious warm sunshine - more like the Moray Riviera than the Moray Firth.
Accies started well and took the game to the home team who may well have been taken aback by Accies early commitment. After just 2 minutes, Gareth Armstrong sent a well-timed pass through the middle where Martin Bonnar had made a great run through the heart of the defence. The lightweight midfielder took a touch before slotting home past the helpless Mark Brown from 15 yards and sending the visiting fans into raptures. It would have been interesting to see how ICT would have reacted (and their fans who remain to be convinced about John Robertson's style) if we had managed to hold onto the lead for 20 minutes or so but it was not to be. I thought an Accies man was clearly fouled in the centre circle in the lead up to the goal but Caley Thistle carried on and top scorer Denis Wyness was given all the time he needed in the box to beat Potter comfortably. 1-1 after 8 minutes. Accies were undaunted by the quick equaliser however and continued to press forward without creating many chances. ICT looked dangerous when they came forward and took the lead just after the half hour when more sloppy defending gave Robson the chance to fire home from inside the box.
The half time pies were duly scoffed back in the hospitality suite as we anticipated another good 45 minutes from Accies. I thought we were unlucky to go in at half time a goal down so we looked forward with a little optimism to the second half. Accies made 2 changes to the defence at half time with Ian Dobbins and Jim Sherry replacing Andy Arbuckle and Paul McDonald as the management team of Hillcoat and Dempsey decided to change the shape of the defence. Within 5 minutes of the restart the game was over as ex-Accie Paul Ritchie and Wyness again scored what looked fairly simple goals. By this time we were with the rest of the Accies support behind the goal and couldn't see much of what was to follow. Pretty soon it turned into a rout as Accies fell to pieces and lost a further 2 goals. 6-1 down with 20 minutes to go and ICT scoring at will. Thankfully the home team relented and we were spared any further embarrassment. Accies were unable to summon up an attack of any sort and failed to threaten the home goal in the entire second half. Alan Russell took a bit of a rollicking from the home fans while warming up and wasn't exactly over the moon about it. He came on for the last 10 minutes but, like his teammates, was unable to create anything.
The game finally petered out leaving the sizeable travelling support to make the long journey home. Apart from those of us keen to wipe out the memory of the game by throwing a lot of complimentary whisky down our necks! A few Accies players popped into the lounge but didn't linger and there were a few grim faces, including Messrs Hillcoat and Dempsey. I spoke briefly with Hilly (while making John Robertson wait his turn!) who was clearly disappointed by the performances of certain experienced players but remains upbeat about the rest of the season, not that he has any choice in that respect. The result certainly puts into perspective previous comments from players about promotion. On this display we are so far away from that it's scary and all of the players have to realise that, unless they can knuckle down and battle for every point until the end of the season, we're heading for 3rd division oblivion and most of the players will be out of jobs. If they can't see that now, they will come May - by which time it's all too late.
Hamilton: Potter, Arbuckle (Sherry 46), McDonald (Dobbins 46), Kerr, Sweeney, Alistair S Graham, Bonnar, Walker, Callaghan, McPhee (Russell 76), Armstrong.
© AcciesWorld 2002
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