Accies 0 Alloa Athletic 1: Tuesday, 16 March 2004

Scottish League Division 2

New Douglas Park, 16 March 2004

Report by Gilbert Mowat

Accies suffered their second 1-0 home defeat in just 4 days when they went down to Alloa at NDP on Tuesday night. It was a desperately poor game, with both teams struggling to cope with the incessant rain and swirling wind.

With Brian McPhee absent through injury, Allan Maitland shuffled his depleted squad around and Jim Sherry was in the heart of midfield with Darren Gribben and Mark Corcoran up front. While Accies certainly had the better of the first half, they were unable to get past Gary McGlynn in the Alloa goal. He made a couple of vital saves during a spell of Accies dominance, with the best of these being a great stop from a Jim Sherry shot. Alloa tended to attack on the break and they should certainly have scored when one of their forwards sliced the ball wide right in front of the goal. Just before the interval, Andy Arbuckle seemed to pick up a shin injury and was replaced by Chris Aitken.

The game had the look of a goalless draw, but sadly Alloa broke the deadlock with a well struck effort by Jamie McGowan just after the hour after two shots had been blocked, one of them by returning former Accies player Stuart "I'm average but have white boots" Callaghan. The goal gave the visitors some confidence and the remainder of the game saw them soak up waves of inept Accies attacks and play on the counter attack. They did this quite well and Dave McEwan had to be on his toes to prevent any further damage.

Accies never really looked like getting back into the game and it was evident that they were really missing their key injured players, Quitongo, Convery and McPhee. It would appear that the promotion charge is simply running out of steam and that another term in the second division awaits.

Hamilton Accies: McEwan, Walker (Whiteford), Thomson, Lumsden, Hodge, Arbuckle (Aitken), Sherry, Blackadder, Carrigan, Gribben (Donnelly), Corcoran. Subs: Aitken, Donnelly, Whiteford, Nicoll, Jellema.

Alloa Athletic: McGlynn, Nicolson, Valentine, Bolochoweckjy, Seaton, Walker, Ferguson, McGowan, Callaghan, Hamilton, Little. Subs: Daly, Stevenson, Gareth Evans, McLaughlin, James Evans.

Referee: B Cassidy

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