Bell's Scottish Football League Division 1
Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld, 20 November 2004
Clyde 2
Sheridan 35
Potter 90
Accies 1
Tunbridge 29
Report by Gilbert Mowat
For what feels like the umpteenth time so far this season, Accies took less from a tough game than they deserved. But there's no benefit to be gained from whining about it; if they don't address this continued failure in front of goal during the transfer window then they will surely drop back down to Division 2 in the summer.
Despite an opening period when Clyde were in charge, Accies were the better of the teams in the first half. The opening goal came for Accies just before the half hour - and it was a beauty. Brian Carrigan had the ball on the right wing and Stevie Convery told him to play it to his feet about 25 yards out. Stevie then passed the ball onto Brian McPhee on the right wing and his pinpoint low cross was knocked home by Scott Tunbridge from close range for his 4th goal of the season. The irritating thing is - Accies came up with this one example of brilliant passing football but then were unable to do it again for most of the rest of the game. I lost count of the number of times throughout the game that Brian Carrigan fired the ball high into Bryn Halliwell's area and it was just catching practice for the Clyde goalie.
Unhappily, it only took the home side 5 minutes or so to equalise, with Darren Sheridan shooting home from 25 yards out after Accies had given the ball away cheaply. This gave Clyde a bit of momentum for the next 10 minutes or so but they were unable to score again before the interval. Accies had a few chances in the first period, with Ricky Waddell shooting just over the bar from the edge of the box and the same player had a shot easily saved by Halliwell.
One characteristic of the game was the physical tactics employed by Clyde. They never missed a chance to get the boot in and it was obvious that experienced campaigners like Gary Bollan were doing all they could to wind-up Brian McPhee. In fact one of their defenders kicked The Bee right in front of referee Calum Murray but the spineless official took no action.
It was probably about right that the teams were level at the break but their can be no doubt that Accies were the better team after the interval. In terms of possession, skill and effort they were well ahead of the home side. They produced several good shooting chances, but Stevie Convery elected to fire high instead of low, Brian Carrigan tried to chip Halliwell instead of blasting it, Ricky Waddell tried to shoot instead of crossing and David Carney also tried to shoot instead of squaring the ball. That's just the chances that spring to mind. A bit more composure and quality in front of goal and the points would have been in the bag.
In one bizarre incident, Stevie Convery played the ball after running back from an offside position despite the fact that Brian McPhee had a chance to run through on goal. So you can add poor decision making to the reasons for this defeat.
With the clock running down, Allan Maitland made a couple of changes, with the impressive David Carney and Stevie Convery being replaced by Mark Corcoran and Iain Fyfe. Corky did his best to run at the home defence but Iain Fyfe's only contribution was decidedly negative.
As the game moved into injury time, Accies were pretty comfortable and still trying their best to go forward to win the game. Then came an incident that will undoubtedly be totally ignored by the media - when referee Calum Murray simply couldn't be bothered to follow the rules of the game. With a minute of time played after the end of the regulation 90, a long ball was pumped into the Accies half, with one of the Clyde forwards penalised for offside. The flag was up, but as the ball ran out of play, Murray simply gave the throw in instead of awarding Accies an indirect free kick. That would have given Accies the chance to launch a late attack that might just have won them the game.
Instead, the throw-in was taken and the ball was lost in midfield, with Iain Fyfe tripping a Clyde player who had got away from him. After he had been given his yellow card, the ball was knocked high into the area, where it broke loose to John Potter and he gave Dave McEwan no chance with a low shot. The Clyde players and officials celebrated as you might expect. But after Accies had contributed so much to the game it was hard to stomach.
If the ball had been running back to Dave McEwan it would have been correct for the ref to wave play on, but to do so when all we have is a throw in inside our own half meant no advantage to Accies. So instead of slinging the ball forward in an attempt to win the game, we lost the ball in midfield and a goal came from the resultant free kick.
This was a hugely disappointing game for Accies but the sad truth is that they really only have themselves to blame. They certainly had their chances but lacked composure in front of goal. I thought Clyde were stuffy opponents but no better than that. Star man Ian Harty was well controlled by the Accies defence, where former Bully Wee man Mark McLaughlin was outstanding.
Accies didn't do too many things wrong and that no-one at Clyde would have complained if the game had ended in a draw. But it's yet another sore lesson in this season's division 1 campaign.
It's time for this side to toughen up and show their killer touch.
Clyde: Halliwell, Mensing, Wilson (Balmer 64), Potter, Bollan, Gilhaney, Gibson (Bryson 67), Sheridan, Walker, Wilford, Harty.
Subs Not Used: Conway, Bradley, Morrison.
Booked: Wilson, Bollan.
Goals: Sheridan 35, Potter 90.
Hamilton: McEwan, Arbuckle, Thomson, McLaughlin, Hodge, Carney (Fyfe), Waddell, Tunbridge, Convery (Corcoran 64), Carrigan, McPhee.
Subs Not Used: Walker, Irons, Fyfe, Jellema.
Booked: McPhee, McLaughlin, Fyfe.
Goal: Tunbridge 29.
Att: 1,200
Ref: C Murray
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