Accies 0 Partick Thistle 1: 21 August 2004

Bell's League Division 1

New Douglas Park, Hamilton, 21 August 2004

Report by Gilbert Mowat

Accies suffered their first league defeat in 5 months when they lost to Partick Thistle at NDP on Saturday. Manager Allan Maitland made four changes to the team that defeated Ayr in midweek, with Robert Walker, Mark McLaughlin and Brian Carrigan replacing Todd Lumsden, Sandy Hodge and Stevie Convery, who must have been particularly disappointed after his goalscoring heroics on Tuesday. Derek Ferguson had been named in the team, but had to withdraw just before the start when he felt ill. He was replaced by David Hamilton, who joined Accies in the summer from Pollok Juniors. This meant that Ryan Blackadder was added to the substitutes.

With a large contingent of Jags fans in the Spice of Life Stand, the game was held up for around 7 minutes to let everyone in. That was followed by a minute's silence out of respect for Accies fan Paul Gerard "PG" McGilvray, who had died recently. It was well observed by all.

Accies played reasonably well in the opening stages of the game although they never really looked like scoring. Mark Corcoran was ruled offside when given a scoring chance and Brian Carrigan had a powerful shot that went just wide, but I can't recall Kenny Arthur having to break sweat in the Thistle goal. The visitors were looking that bit faster and more skilful, particularly in midfield.

Accies were a bit fortunate after 17 minutes. After a promising attack broke down, the ball was launched forward where Leigh Hinds and Mark McLaughlin gave chase. Hinds tried to cut the ball across big Mark's path, where he clearly handled it. He was shown the yellow card, but another referee might have taken sterner action. The free kick was hit low and straight and was easily gathered by Dave McEwan. Further yellow cards were to be shown to Scott Tunbridge and David Hamilton. If McLaughlin had been quite fortunate, I thought those two were unlucky as their fouls were certainly not particularly bad.

The Accies goal was living a bit of a charmed life. Leigh Hinds should have been yellow carded when, in a good position inside the area, he elected to fling himself across the path of Steven Thomson in the hope of gaining a penalty and a red card for the Accies man. His dive was sadly ignored by the referee - but it was obvious cheating by the former Clyde and Aberdeen man. Jamie Mitchell should have scored when he got the ball on the edge of the 6 yard area but Scott Tunbridge made a brilliant last gasp tackle to clear the danger.

A goal was on the cards and it duly arrived after 31 minutes when Juan Ramon Escalas received a cut back from the right, made space and then cracked the ball low past Dave McEwan from the edge of the area. It was no more than the Jags deserved at that point.

At half time, I thought Allan Maitland might make a change to freshen things up, but that didn't happen until just after the hour when Ryan Blackadder came on for Scott Tunbridge. Accies tried hard but Partick were always really in control of things. They missed a couple of good chances too, with Dave McEwan rushing to save well from Leigh Hinds and Escalas slicing wide when he should have scored.

Accies best chance came when Brian Carrigan's deep corner was missed by the Thistle defence and volleyed goalwards by Robert Walker at the back post. It was agonisingly cleared off the line by Anis and the chance was lost. Stevie Convery only got to play the final 17 minutes of the game and didn't get any chances.

In the end it was frustrating for Accies that they missed out on a point but the truth of the matter is that the better team won. The most important players for Accies were the defence, who did their jobs well against one of the favourites for the title.

Up front, I thought that Pat Keogh struggled to make any impression. I hope things will improve for the big guy soon, it could be that he still lacks match fitness. Accies really missed Brian McPhee and I'm not convinced that Mark Corcoran should be played up front. I would always have him in the team, but would prefer to see him on the left of midfield with more confident strikers in front of him. He did have an opportunity in the second half but mistimed his header and it went well wide.

Steven Thomson was the sponsor's choice for man of the match. I would have given it to Ricky Waddell, who was outstanding in the left wing back position. So although it was a disappointing defeat, it was no disaster. As this Accies team gets more experience of Division 1 football, I think they will do reasonably well.

Finally, although I missed it there are reports from both sets of fans that there were some obviously racist chants coming from a few of the Accies fans at the game, aimed at the black players in the Thistle team. The stupidity of this is beyond belief and it's to be hoped that these guys will be named and shamed very quickly. Accies don't need them.

Hamilton: McEwan, Walker, McLaughlin, Thomson, Waddell, Tunbridge (Blackadder 64), Hamilton, Aitken, Carrigan (Convery 73), Keogh, Corcoran. Subs Not Used: Hodge, Fyfe, Jellema.

Booked: McLaughlin, Tunbridge, Hamilton.

Partick Thistle: Arthur, Billy Gibson, Dowie, Murray, Milne (Panther 79), Anis, Fulton, Fleming, Mitchell, Escalas, Hinds (Oné 75). Subs Not Used: Wilkinson, Howie, Pinkowski.

Booked: Billy Gibson. Goals: Escalas 31.

Att: 3,543

Ref: C Thomson

© AcciesWorld 2004

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