Bell's League Division 1
Palmerston Park, Dumfries, 24 September 2005
Queen of the South 1
O'Neil (pen) 63
Hamilton Accies 2
Jones 6
Tunbridge 77
Report by Gilbert Mowat
Accies maintained their fine record away from home with this narrow win against basement dwellers Queens at Palmerston. The scoreline is deceptive however, as it implies that the home side came close to matching Accies. While the margin of victory was slender, Accies were by far the superior team and should have won by a few goals.
For this game, Accies' manager Billy Reid was unable to play John Robertson as the right back had suffered a cracked rib in the recent win against Dundee. This caused a bit of a reshuffle at the back, with Stuart Balmer coming into the right side of a three man defence. Further forward, Pat Keogh partnered Graeme Jones up front in the Accies attack. Accies got off to a decent start and the emphasis was on a nice simple passing game on the deck. Billy Reid had promised that his side would attack but he would probably not have expected the early present that came Accies' way after just 6 minutes.
Scott Tunbridge got down the right wing and his perfect cutback was mishit by Pat Keogh straight to a home defender. He got in a real fankle and the ball rolled nicely into the path of Graeme Jones, who made no mistake from close range. Accies controlled the majority of the half, with the home side limited to the occasional attack that petered out without any threat being made to Dave McEwan's goal. However, although they had the bulk of the play Accies were once again unable to create much in the way of clear cut chances. The best effort came from Mark McLaughlin, who saw his excellent header from a corner kick headed off the line by Steve Bowey.
Queens were very disappointing in the first period and their manager Iain Scott made his first substitution after only 22 minutes, when McColligan was replaced by Wood. The replaced player went straight up the tunnel and didn't look too impressed. Accies were ahead at the break but there was always the worry that their inability to get that second goal would key to their downfall.
With Iain Scott making his second tactical change at the break, there was no real change to the pattern of play with Accies still in control. Just after the hour, Billy Reid decided that the time had come for a change and he replaced Pat Keogh with Sandy Hodge. This meant that Sandy moved into the left back area, with Derek Fleming moving further forward and Scott Tunbridge joining Graeme Jones up front. Within a minute, the home side were level. They broke clear down the left side of the Accies defence, with Sandy Hodge perhaps not yet up to speed. Steve Bowey cut inside and laid the ball nicely into the path of David McNiven just 10 yards out. As he tried to shoot, he was fouled by Scott MacKenzie and, although the ball was fired home by Brian McLaughlin, the referee pointed to the spot. John O'Neil fired the ball low into the corner and the game was level.
Naturally, this gave the home side a real boost and they took the game to Accies for several minutes. This spell included Dave McEwan's only real save of the game when he did well to keep out a close range effort. Accies were on the rack for a wee bit, but then regained their composure and took control again.This really coincided with the arrival of Brian Carrigan, who came on for Derek Fleming. Carrots added an extra bit of skill to the Accies play and he combined particularly well with Alex Neil, who was having another excellent game in the Accies midfield.
Accies retook the lead after 77 minutes, when Marvyn Wilson sent in a great cross from the left that was headed on by Mark McLaughlin and nodded over Colin Scott by Scott Tunbridge. The goal wasn't a classic but it was very welcome nonetheless. For the remainder of the game Accies alternated between mass defending (with everyone back to defend a corner kick) and some dangerous counter-attacks with Alex Neil, Brian Carrigan and Scott Tunbridge heavily involved. Brown Ferguson replaced Graeme Jones with 7 minutes left and Jones was yellow carded by the referee for leaving the pitch too slowly. He joined Marvyn Wilson and Alex Neil in the referee's notebook. They had been booked earlier for fairly inconsequential offences.
Accies held out without too many problems and certainly deserved to take full points from the game. The defence looked assured throughout and the midfield was in control for most of the game. However, there was an obvious lack of pace about the front line and that will give manager Billy Reid some cause for concern, even though he will have been delighted to leave Palmerston with a win.
Queen of the South: Scott, Gibson, Hill (English 59), Reid, Thomson, Burns (Paton 46), Bowey, McColligan (Wood 22), McLaughlin, O'Neil, McNiven.
Subs Not Used: Barnard, Carr.
Booked: Wood, Thomson.
Goal: O'Neil 63 pen.
Hamilton: McEwan, Balmer, Fleming (Carrigan 69), Thomson, McLaughlin, Neil, Tunbridge, Wilson, MacKenzie, Jones (Ferguson 83), Keogh (Hodge 62).
Subs Not Used: Gonzalez, Jellema.
Booked: Neil, Jones, Wilson.
Goals: Jones 6, Tunbridge 77.
Att: 1,380
Ref: C Allan
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