East Fife 2 Accies 3: 3 April 2004

Scottish League Division 2

New Bayview, 3 April 2004

Report by Gilbert Mowat

There's an old saying about some football matches being a game of two halves. Never was that old cliché better demonstrated than in this bizarre game at Methil. Quite frankly, the first half was absolutely stinking. The rain poured from the heavens and the swirling wind meant that even those near the back of the stand were in danger of a real soaking. More importantly, there were two teams on the park who seemed unable to string two passes together and play anything resembling football. Accies were only able to manage a couple of long range shots that flew over the bar (and the perimeter wall), while the best effort from the home team was a good header by Kenny Deuchar that Dave McEwan touched around the post without breaking sweat.

What Accies DID manage to do in the first half was fall out with the referee. First of all Jim Sherry was yellow carded for persistent fouling even though most of his tackles were firm but fair. Chris Aitken was harshly dealt with too, when his momentum carried him into an East Fife player in the centre circle. The referee had a poor game throughout, with his whistle never far from his mouth as he interrupted the game as often as he could. It must be said that neither side deserved to be level at the break, if you see what I mean.

If the first half had been rubbish (and it was), the second half was a different matter completely. I don't know if they all had some stovies in the away dressing room or if Allan Maitland gave a kick-ass team talk at the interval, but it was a different Accies side that came back on after the break. Accies took the lead after 50 minutes after a home defender sliced a clearance onto his hand and was penalised about 22 yards from goal. Brian Carrigan thumped the free kick low and hard but straight at goalkeeper Gary O'Connor. Happily for Accies, O'Connor couldn't hold the ball and it broke free for a jubilant Robert Walker to thump it into the net for his second consecutive goal for Accies.

I don't know if young Robert suddenly thinks he's an attacker, but the two goals that Accies lost in this game both came from attacks down the East Fife left. The first came just 3 minutes after Accies had scored, Kenny Deuchar crossed from the left for Craig McMillan to smash into the unguarded net. The home team came mighty close to taking the lead when Jay Stein put the ball over the bar from about 12 yards with the Accies defence carved wide open.

After the game settled down a bit, manager Allan Maitland made what turned out to be an inspired substitution, when he replaced the subdued Ricky Waddell with Mark Corcoran. At the time, I thought it a strange change to make as Waddell had been starved of the ball by his teammates. Just two minutes after this change, Steven Thomson picked up a yellow card for a retaliatory push on Brian Fairbairn. It was typical of the referee to do this when it was clear that Fairbairn could easily have picked up another yellow card to match the one he received just after the interval.

This was soon forgotten as Accies regained the lead after 68 minutes. After an Accies attack was blocked by the East Fife defence, the ball was knocked wide to Mark Corcoran. Corky cut in on goal but his shot was blocked by O'Connor. It spun through towards the goal, where Brian McPhee won the race and nodded it into the lead from close range.

There must be something odd about New Bayview, as once again Accies were only able to hold the lead for three minutes. This time it was Jay Stein who sent over a great cross from the left for Kenny Deuchar to score from close range. This time it was obvious that Robert Walker was out of position.

The fun wasn't over. Just a few minutes later Chris Aitken sent over a lovely cross from the right which Brian McPhee headed down into the bottom corner. This time there was to be no way back for the home team, despite their obvious aerial threat from set pieces. Allan Maitland made all of his available changes, with Brian Carrigan being replaced by Andy Arbuckle and Darren Gribben replacing The Bee. It was quite funny when the Bee went off. He saw that Darren was ready to come on and assumed that he would be replaced. He therefore ran over to the near touchline with a big grin on his face for the Accies fans. This meant that when he was called off he had to trudge all the way across the park - which was courting disaster as he had just been yellow carded.

With Mark Corcoran taking the ball into the corners as often as he could, Accies held on for a much needed win. There's only a slight chance of promotion but that should not detract from a good team performance and some well taken goals, especially by Brian McPhee.

East Fife: O'Connor, McMillan, Lumsden, Mathie, McDonald, Russell, Blair, Bain, Stein, Fairbairn, Deuchar.

Subs: Condie, Donaldson, Mitchell, Gilbert, Graham.

Hamilton: McEwan, Walker, Thomson, Lumsden, Hodge, Carrigan, Sherry, Aitken, Waddell, Blackadder, McPhee.

Subs: Corcoran, Gribben, Arbuckle, Quitongo, Jellema.

Referee: C MacKay

© AcciesWorld 2004

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