St Mirren 2
Broadfoot 23
Lappin 84
Hamilton Accies 1
Gilhaney 81
Report by Gilbert Mowat
Accies' promotion aspirations suffered a major setback on Saturday when they went down to the league leaders at a cold and damp Love St. The only good news on the injury situation was that Brian Carrigan was able to make the game after limping off against Queen of the South 7 days before and that Steven Thomson was on the bench. Otherwise, it was the same starting X1 that had outclassed Queens. This meant that Billy Reid's resources were stretched to the limit with no fewer than 8 first team regulars on the sidelines.
Accies took their time to settle in the early stages and the home side stroked the ball about well. After a couple of half hearted penalty appeals by the home side, Accies suffered yet another injury blow when Sandy Hodge limped off (very slowly) after 15 minutes and was obviously in great pain. His place was taken by Steven Thomson, who had himself been absent for several weeks with a back injury. With dangerous crosses coming into the Accies penalty area at regular intervals, goalkeeper Dave McEwan was very busy trying to protect his goal.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do about the opening goal after 23 minutes. With the home fans howling at referee Dougie McDonald for not awarding them a penalty, he made amends by awarding a free kick 30 yards out on the touchline. The ball was floated to the far post, where two St Mirren players were waiting. Stewart Kean was unlucky to see his floated header hit the post, but the ball rebounded to Kirk Broadfoot and the big full back thrashed the ball home to give St Mirren the lead.
The Accies goal led a bit of a charmed life for the remainder of the half, with Dave McEwan making a couple of superb saves. Things got a bit tousy, with Alex Neil following Fleming into the referee's book for "simulation." Kevin McGowne saw yellow too for a heated argument with Alex Neil. After another foul by Derek Fleming that could, under different circumstances have merited a yellow card, the player was replaced with James McArthur. It was still 1-0 at the interval and apart from the odd dangerous run by Paul McMullan and Alex Neil, Accies had done little to threaten Chris Smith's goal. There can be no doubt that St Mirren were the superior team in the first half and deserved their lead.
Accies came back into the game after the break and started to cause problems for the home defence. Brian Carrigan was withdrawn after 58 minutes and it has to be said that this was not his finest hour in an Accies shirt. However, it has to be remembered that he had been struggling for fitness and had been a doubt before the game. This brought Mark Gilhaney into the game and once again he showed his appetite for the ball. All of a sudden he and Paul McLeod were getting under the feet of the Saints defence and causing them some problems.
However, chances were still a rarity for Accies and Chris Smith had little to deal with. On the other hand, Dave McEwan had to produce a couple of superb saves to keep the St Mirren forwards at bay. As the game wore on a goal for Accies still seemed unlikely. They did almost score when Steven Thomson fired the ball across the face of the goal and Paul McLeod just failed to reach it. Then, moments after a St Mirren player had skied the ball over the top from a great position, Accies suddenly scored a surprise equaliser. It came out of nothing, with Chris Smith slow to react to a ball across his area from Paul McLeod and Mark Gilhaney squeezed it home at the far post. It wasn't a great goal although it was the first one that St Mirren had conceded on their own pitch for over 1000 minutes.
While Accies were suddenly back on level terms, the goal served only to spur St Mirren onto greater efforts. They poured forward and attacked Accies relentlessly. They got their just reward when Simon Lappin lashed the ball into the far corner from the edge of the area. This was the cue for huge celebrations and there was to be no way back for the Hoops.
There aren't too many positives to be taken from this game. The injury to Sandy Hodge was yet another unwelcome addition to the long list of injuries sustained this season. There were four bookings and suspensions will start cropping up soon. The team that played the game did their best and were not lacking in effort, but it was clear that Accies suffered from having so many first choice players in the stand rather than on the pitch.
St Mirren: Smith, van Zanten, Broadfoot, Millen, McGowne, Potter, Murray, Adam (Reid 75), Kean (McGinty 71), Sutton, Lappin.
Subs Not Used: Corcoran, Reilly, Maxwell.
Booked: Adam.
Goals: Broadfoot 23, Lappin 84.
Hamilton: McEwan, Robertson, Fleming (McArthur 30), McMullan, Hodge (Thomson 15), Neil, Ferguson, Wilson, McLeod, MacKenzie, Carrigan (Gilhaney 58).
Subs Not Used: Sim, Jellema.
Booked: Fleming, Neil, McArthur, McMullan.
Goal: Gilhaney 81.
Att: 3,195
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