Accies 2 Raith Rovers 0: 7 August 2004

Bell's Scottish Football League Division 1

New Douglas Park, Hamilton, 7 August 2004

Report by Gilbert Mowat

Accies celebrated their long awaited return to the first division with a well deserved if workmanlike win against the visitors from Kirkcaldy. With Pat Keogh not fit to start the game, Allan Maitland named the same starting lineup that had given St Johnstone a good game 7 days before. Keogh was on the bench. I wouldn't normally mention the weather, but it was absolutely roasting at NDP. I think the fans tended to forget this when watching some of the mistakes that were made out on the park.

I have to confess that most of the Raith players were previously unknown to me although I did recognise young Philip Hagan up front. Uniquely among Scottish senior footballers, Philip is deaf and plays with the help of a hearing aid in each ear. Although he didn't appear to be injured or doing anything particularly wrong, Hagan was "hooked" after just 38 minutes by Claude Anelka and his assistant, Davie "42 convictions" Martin.

After the usual settling in period, Accies realised that the visitors weren't up to much and started to play a bit, with Mark Corcoran and Scott Tunbridge firing in great crosses from wide positions. One such cross from the left from Mark Corcoran was volleyed across the area by Scott Tunbridge. It was was blocked by a Raith defender on the edge of the 6 yard box but he only succeeded in knocking the ball into the air. It sat up awkwardly for Brian McPhee and The Bee had to control it before heading against the bar with goalkeeper Rudi Poussounamy floundering. Had Brian been able to convert the chance then I think Accies would have won the game a lot more easily. Brian Carrigan also clipped the bar late in the half with a free kick that was just too high (obviously!)

Although the visitors did have their moments in the first half, their own effort on goal worthy of the name was a looping header that Dave McEwan caught easily under the crossbar. At the interval it was still goalless, although it seemed that Accies were in the ascendancy.

The visitors got off to a cracking start in the second half and were unlucky not to take the lead just after kick off. With Stevie Thomson and Mark McLaughlin possibly still picking bits of orange quarters out of their teeth, two of the Rovers front men broke through onto an excellent pass that cut through the heart of the Accies defence. With the Accies centre backs chasing back to cover, the man on the ball foolishly elected to square the ball to his mate to score. Unfortunately for him, his teammate was in an offside position and the goal was correctly disallowed.

Accies didn't really waken up for a while and Rovers were again unlucky not to score when Dave McEwan was forced into a terrific save at his post to keep the scoreline blank.

The game was to turn with an Accies double substitution 10 minutes into the second half, with big Pat Keogh making his long awaited Accies debut in place of Mark Corcoran and David Hamilton coming on for the lacklustre Ryan Blackadder. Ryan had been yellow carded for persistent fouling and really had a mediocre day in the hot sunshine. Just three minutes later, Rovers made their third and final change. Perhaps the weather contributed to the number of early changes that were made.

Things improved almost right away for Accies, with the presence of Keogh causing problems right away and David Hamilton showing some neat footwork on the right side of the park. The problem was that Accies still didn't look like scoring and their attempts on goal were not very convincing. With the game drifting towards a disappointing goalless draw, everything changed in the space of three minutes late in the game. Ricky Waddell's deep free kick from the half way line was headed across goal by Scott Tunbridge, with the Raith goalie floundering. It was knocked back across the face of the goal by Brian Carrigan and was lashed into the net from close range by a delighted Mark McLaughlin. The big man was engulfed by his teammates in the centre circle as the fans celebrated.

Just three minutes later and the game was safe. An Accies free kick just outside the area was hit harmlessly into the wall by Brian Carrigan. The rebound was played wide to David Hamilton by Ricky Waddell and his low cross was diverted beautifully into the bottom corner by unfortunate substitute Jonathan Smart, under pressure from Brian McPhee. After that the game fizzled out and the points were in the bag.

While the three points were extremely welcome, there can be no doubt that if Accies play like this against the better teams in the division they will simply not survive. Too many passes went astray, with Robert Walker and Ryan Blackadder particularly poor. The midfield in general didn't really get going, with Chris Aitken and Brian Carrigan having quiet games. I thought The Bee tried his best as usual and mark Corcoran was good in spells.

The absolute stand out player on the park was Mark McLaughlin, who capped his league debut with that all important opening goal. He was superb at the back and looked good when bringing the ball out of defence. He probably had no right to be so far up the park in the 77th minute, but let's all be grateful that he was. He won the match sponsor's man of the match award and I doubt if anyone could disagree with that.

As for the visitors, they looked good in spells but didn't really deserve to take anything from the game. It was very interesting to see that, with a couple of minutes left and his experimental team staring defeat in the face, manager Claude Anelka was talking to someone on his mobile in the dugout. I think I would prefer the manager to be doing his best to motivate the troops, but then I'm no manager. Time will tell if Anelka is.

Hamilton: McEwan, Walker, Thomson, McLaughlin, Waddell, Carrigan (Convery 82), Tunbridge, Aitken, Blackadder (Hamilton 54), McPhee, Corcoran (Keogh 54). Subs Not Used: Lumsden, Jellema.

Booked: Aitken, Blackadder, Walker. Goals: McLaughlin 77, Smart 80 og.

Raith Rovers: Pounoussamy, Paquito, Hajovsky, Davidson (Ouattara 57), McAlpine, Young, Hagan (Boyle 38), Brady, A Trialist (Smart 46), Sacko, Ebanda. Subs Not Used: O'Reilly, Berthelot.

Booked: Sacko, Hajovsky.

Attendance: 2,176

Referee: J Downie

© AcciesWorld 2004

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