Bell's League Division 1

New Douglas Park, Hamilton,

3rd December 2005

Report by Gilbert Mowat

With so many players out through injury, this was always going to be a difficult game for Accies. Manager Billy Reid was able to restore Steven Thomson and Mark McLaughlin to the heart of the defence, but Brian Carrigan and Alex Neil could only make the substitutes bench. Scott Tunbridge, Pat Keogh, Graeme Jones, Scott Tunbridge and Lee Hardy were unavailable through injury. In a surprise move, full back John Robertson partnered Paul McLeod up front.

The visitors were obviously up for this game and they came close to taking the lead after just four minutes. Some neat passing gave Stephen O'Donnell a shooting chance from the edge of the area but David McEwan got down well to save. The ball squirted out of his grasp and he did very well to block a close range shot by Kevin Bradley when a goal for the Bully Wee seemed certain. Accies came back into things and Paul McMullan was unlucky after 8 minutes when his cross from the left clipped the crossbar. (He was do repeat the feat later in the half as he tried to emulate his fine goal in the last home game against Queen of the South.) Just a minute later, John Robertson was presented with a half chance but his left foot shot did not trouble Peter Cherrie in the Clyde goal.

As the half went on, Clyde began to take control of things and Accies found it hard to build anything that would cause them any great danger. At one point their supporters got all hot and bothered about Steven Thomson's ball control inside the area, but Kenny Clark correctly spotted that he used his stomach to control the ball rather than his arm. The game got a bit physical when Chris Higgins saw yellow for scything down Brown Ferguson. This was followed by a close shave at the Accies end when the ball deflected off Scott MacKenzie's heel and nearly beat Dave McEwan low at the post.

After this Mark Gilhaney demonstrated that he can play a bit at the back with two excellent pieces of defensive play to tidy things up for Accies. As the half came to a close there were near things at both ends. First of all, John Robertson and Paul McLeod combined well but McLeod scooped his shot well over the bar when a goal was likely. Just before the whistle, a Clyde player hit a thunderbolt from 20 yards that just scraped over the top of Dave McEwan's crossbar.

If the visitors had probably been the better team before the break, Accies seemed to be inspired by the half time team talk. Within the first ten minutes after the break, Brown Ferguson and Paul McLeod both shot past the goal from about 15 yards out and John Robertson saw his excellent header blocked on the line by a good save by Peter Cherrie following a good cross by Mark Gilhaney. However, the outcome of the game was to hinge on an incident that followed this. Clyde had a good move down the left wing and when the cross came over Dave McEwan had to make a brave save at the feet of Alex Williams. McEwan was hurt in the process and an Accies defender put the ball out of play so that he could receive treatment. After a delay of a couple of minutes (during which sub goalkeeper Raymond Jellema was prepared for action), McEwan decided to continue. Sportingly, the Clyde corner kick was knocked straight out of play for a throw-in.

Things got a bit scrappy for a while after this. Clyde did have the ball in the net but it was obvious that at least two of their players were in offside positions. Mark McLaughlin was yellow carded for a foul in a non-threatening position and Alex Neil and Brian Carrigan replaced Paul McLeod and Paul McMullan. Carrots' first action was to take a direct free from about 30 yards out but he hit the ball tamely into the wall. He did better just a few minutes later as his goal gave Accies the lead. Mark Gilhaney created the chance with a great run down the left byeline. His cutback went straight to Brian Carrigan about 15 yards out and he rifled it low past Cherrie. Just a couple of minutes later Gilhaney had another good run down the left and went down in the area, but there was no strong appeal for a penalty and Kenny Clark wasn't interested.

There was outrage amongst some of the Accies fans after 77 minutes when Mark Gilhaney was fouled on the half way line. It was a clear foul and if the ball had gone loose there would have been no complaints from the Accies fans. However, he had just hit a superb pass through the Clyde defence that had left Brian Carrigan with just the goalkeeper to beat. Kenny Clark stopped the game and merely warned the Clyde man so there was no advantage to the offended team at all.

Clyde made a double substitution after this, which saw Alex Williams withdrawn and diminutive Clyde assistant manager Joe Miller (who celebrates his 38th birthday this week) brought into the action. Unfortunately, the wee guy was able to show that he hasn't lost all of his skill over the years when he headed a cross past Dave McEwan at the back post for a deserved equaliser. The goal wasn't exactly a surprise as Accies had been on the back foot for the previous few minutes. In addition, Dave McEwan had been looking a bit uncertain about things after his injury. If he had been fully fit, he would certainly have been able to protect his goal. Clyde manager Graham Roberts clearly doesn't believe in mild celebrations as he ran onto the pitch in jubilation.

Clyde came close to grabbing all of the points near the end when Joe Miller managed, with the back of his head, to put the ball just wide of the target from 6 yards. They also had a shot that went just over the bar. As the game died out Brian Carrigan and a Clyde player were shown yellow cards for a bit of stupidity over a throw-in.

There's no doubt that this was a disappointing performance from Accies. Their habit of losing goals at the end of matches has cost them no fewer than 7 points in recent matches, as well as the Bell's Cup. The squad has been decimated by injuries and it would be unfair to be too critical of the players who took part in this match, several of whom were clearly not fully fit. With a decent run of luck and an improvement in the injury situation they should do better and 4th place in the league can be improved upon.

Mark McLaughlin won the sponsor's man of the match award and did well, although he seemed to run out of steam towards the end. Of the others, Mark Gilhaney was probably the stand-out. But there's no disguising the fact that Clyde were well worthy of a point in this game. Manager Billy Reid was disappointed by the draw, telling the Sunday Mail, " Clyde deserved a draw but wee Joe is 5ft 7in, the same as me, and scores a header at the back post. It shouldn't happen."

Hamilton: McEwan, Robertson, Thomson, McLaughlin, McArthur, Ferguson, Wilson, MacKenzie, McMullan (Carrigan 71), McLeod (Neil 65), Gilhaney. Subs Not Used: Stevenson, O'Donnell, Jellema. Booked: McLaughlin, Carrigan. Goal: Carrigan 73.

Clyde: Cherrie, Bradley (Hunter 68), Higgins, McKeown, Bouadji, Bryson (Arbuckle 79), O'Donnell, Masterton, McGowan, Williams (Miller 79), Tom Brighton. Subs Not Used: Dick, Jarvie. Booked: Higgins, McGowan. Goal: Miller 85.

Att: 1,787

Ref: K Clark

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