Stenhousemuir 0 Hamilton Accies 3
Ochilview, Larbert, 8 November 2003
Report by Gilbert Mowat
After the dismissal of Brian Carrigan, Chris Aitken and Jose Quitongo at Forfar last week, Allan Maitland had no option but to make a few changes for the short trip to Stenhousemuir. In came Stevie Convery, Ciaran Donnelly and Barry Forbes, with Robert Walker also replacing John Fitter at right back.
With Accies playing into the cold wind in the first half, opportunities were very scarce and the home team certainly had the upper hand. Fortunately, most of the chances fell to big Andy Brown who did not have a good day. Having said that the defence played well in the first half, with Robert Walker suggesting that he might be the solution to our right back problems.
With Accies attacking the goal in front of their fans in the second half the game really got going. The first goal after 49 minutes came out of nothing when Barry Forbes chased an overhit through ball into the penalty area. Goalkeeper Willie McCulloch got to the ball first, but clearly kicked out at Forbes as he did so. Despite the protests of the home players, Cammy Melville correctly awarded the spot kick and Brian McPhee was delighted to tuck the ball into the bottom left hand corner with McCulloch helpfully going the wrong way. (Interestingly, the webmaster of the official Stenhousemuir site states that manager John McVeigh agreed with the decision, despite the criticism of the award in the Sunday papers.)
If that was already enough to earn the hapless McCulloch a roasting from his gaffer at time up, things really went pear shaped for the former Airdrie man just three minutes later. A long through ball came towards his goal and was chased by Brian McPhee. I don't know if he just took his eye off the ball or was overawed at being on the field with such a musical talent. Anyway, he took a wild swipe at the ball - missing it completely - leaving The Bee with the simple task of shooting into the unguarded net. It was highly amusing to see that McCulloch was still shaking his head after all the celebrations had died down and the game restarted.
The problem now was that Accies had a two goal lead that they would have to defend for the thick end of 40 minutes. That they did so was down to a combination of poor finishing by Stenhousemuir and good defending by Accies, where Dave McEwan, Steven Thomson and Todd Lumsden looked much more solid than usual. Robert Walker and Sandy Hodge played well too, with big Sandy adding to the attack on occasion.
Barry Forbes didn't recover from the injury he had received from McCulloch after the first goal and was replaced by young Darren Gribben. Darren was very enthusiastic and chased and harried the home defence whenever he got the chance. Mark Corcoran had a quiet game but did put over a couple of dangerous crosses that got no reward.
The Accies fans had a great time during the remainder of the half, with McCulloch receiving cheers and ironic applause whenever he did anything. Nicki Paterson came on for Ciaran Donnelly and John Bailey replaced the subdued Stevie Convery. Darren Gribben came close to scoring a brilliant goal when his free kick from a tight angle hit the bar with McCulloch well beaten.
With time slipping away and the Stenhousemuir faithful drifting towards the exits, Accies scored their third and final goal. Brian McPhee went on a great run into the penalty area, beating several men in the process. He was eventually brought down by Tony Smith and thumped the ball high into the top corner to complete his first hat-trick for Accies.
The final whistle blew shortly afterwards and the fans did a "We're not worthy" salute to McCulloch as he slouched off the park to face the wrath of his manager.
It could be argued that Accies were a bit lucky to win this game given the good first half performance by the home team. But it could also be argued that we were due a wee bit of luck. It was fantastic to see Brian McPhee score the first hat-trick by an Accies player since Davie McFarlane led Accies to the Division 3 title in May 2001. He's really deserved it.
Stenhousemuir: Willie McCulloch, McKenna, Smith, Hamilton, McKenzie, Booth, McGowan, Lauchlan, Brown, Carr, Bonar. Subs: Harty, Cairney, Donnelly, Greig McCulloch, Hardie.
Hamilton: McEwan, Walker, Hodge, Thomson, Lumsden, Donnelly (Bailey 84), Convery (Paterson 79), Arbuckle, Corcoran, McPhee, Forbes (Gribben 53). Subs: Waddell, Bailey, Gribben, Paterson, Jellema.
Referee: C Melville
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