Alloa Athletic 1 Hamilton Accies 3
Recreation Park, Alloa, 13 December 2003
Report by Gilbert Mowat
This was the kind of game that would determine if Accies were to be genuine challengers this season. The weather was drab to say the least and the Recreation Park floodlights didn't do too much to lift the air of gloom about the place. Accies lined up with Stevie Convery taking over from the injured Brian Carrigan, although Carrots had recovered well enough to take a place amongst the substitutes. The home team had former Accies man Stuart Callaghan in their side, along with former Montrose 'keeper Gary McGlynn, whom many Accies fans will remember from that day at Montrose in 2001 when Accies won the 3rd Division title.
Accies nearly got off to a disastrous start when the home side thumped the ball off Dave McEwan's left hand post within the opening minute. The home team clearly took to the conditions better than the visitors and they gave the Accies defence a runabout for the opening spell of the game. It has to be said that the first half was a pretty dismal spell of football, with the only bright points for Accies being the "dancing feet" of Jose Quitongo on the wing. He gave the home defence a bit of a roasting but the scores were level at the break.
Accies were shooting downhill in the second half and took the lead after 51 minutes with a simple goal by Jose Quitongo. He pounced onto a short passback by Stuart Callaghan and easily rounded McGlynn before thumping the ball home. Accies took charge of the game from this point but were denied by a combination of sloppy finishing and good goalkeeping by McGlynn, who seemed to enjoy some banter with the Accies fans behind his goal. I'm not sure that Stuart Callaghan was quite so thrilled with the comments he received when defending corner kicks. It was from one of these that Accies extended their lead after 63 minutes.
Wee Jose had showed some of his fancy footwork to set the ball up for Brian McPhee about 20 yards out. The Bee sclaffed his shot - and the ball was heading wide of goal - until McGlynn got a hand to it and diverted it further around the post. Chris Aitken sent in a great corner and Stevie Convery rose high to deliver the perfect downward header. Accies won another corner soon afterwards, but this time Robert Walker's header went well wide. This led to fierce recriminations between goalkeeper McGlynn and centre half Scott Walker with neither holding back in their shouted insults. For the few Accies fans behind the goal, this was magical stuff.
So it seemed that Accies were well in control, but just as we all thought we had the points in the bag, the home team pulled a goal back thanks to a close range header by Brown Ferguson. It was "game on" for a spell, with the Accies defence (and Dave McEwan in particular) at full stretch to keep Alloa's attack at bay. It was reminiscent of the recent game at Methil, with the home team pounding the Accies defence and our lads struggling to clear their lines. If McEwan hadn't made a couple of superb saves - and if the Alloa forwards hadn't had a bad day - the result could have been very different.
However, Accies weathered the storm and took control of the game for the last 10 minutes or so. Mark Corcoran, Stevie Convery and Brian McPhee all did well to run at the home defence and create some half chances. But the star man was wee Jose who must have produced one of the best performances of his entire Accies career. His trickery was unreal at times and the home defenders didn't know how to control him. He was responsible for the setting up of the final goal near the end, when he teed the ball up for Stevie Convery about 12 yards out. Stevie cracked the ball home with the instep of his right foot - just enough curl to make the ball clip the inside of the post before hitting Gary McGlynn's net.
So it was another highly enjoyable performance from Accies and they are now genuine contenders for promotion. As long as they continue to produce second halves like this one, that dream might well become a reality.
In an excellent team performance, Dave McEwan, Stevie Convery and Jose Quitongo were the star men. There really weren't any failures and it was interesting that we could afford to leave Brian Carrigan on the bench and still win in style.
Bring on the Stranraer!
Alloa Athletic: McGlynn, Nicolson, Seaton, McLaughlin, McGowan, Scott Walker, Richard Walker, Ferguson, Hamilton, Callaghan, Little. Subs: Kelbie, Janczyk, Crabbe, Gareth Evans, James Evans.
Hamilton: McEwan, Walker (Whiteford), Thomson, Lumsden, Hodge, Arbuckle, Convery, Aitken, Sherry (Corcoran), Quitongo (Gribben), McPhee. Subs: Gribben, Corcoran, Carrigan, Whiteford, Jellema.
Referee: J Rowbotham
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