Report by Gilbert Mowat
Accies squandered a great chance to close the gap on league leaders St Mirren on Monday when they lost 5-4 to Stranraer at Stair Park. With no team in the top half of the table winning their game, a victory would have been terrific for Billy Reid's side. However, despite Brown Ferguson scoring a second half double, the defence was unable to cope with the aerial power of former Accie Michael Moore, who scored a hat trick of headers.
Accies lined up with a couple of changes from the win against Ross County last week. Marvyn Wilson was missing through injury while Mark Gilhaney was relegated to the bench. This meant that Brown Ferguson and Scott Tunbridge were in the starting lineup.
On a cold and murky afternoon, the home side got off to a decent start, with a couple of early shots that whizzed past Dave McEwan's goal. Accies took a while to get going, but when they got into their stride they were able to create a couple of decent chances. The best fell to Scott Tunbridge followng some poor goalkeeping by Barry John Corr in the Stranraer goal. The ball was fumbled by the 'keeper but Scott's shot was easily cleared off the line. It will be quite a surprise that in a game with so many goals, we had to wait until shortly before the interval for the deadlock to be broken.
It was a fine goal too, with Brian Carrigan curling a beauty of a direct free-kick around the defensive wall and into the corner to beat Corr near the post. Accies were leading at the break but it was not without cost, with Scott Tunbridge having to be replaced by Pat Keogh. However, the Accies fans were in a good frame of mind as results elsewhere were looking good for Accies.
The second half was unbelievable; one of those spells of football that will go down as one of the most remarkable halves that anyone at the game will ever have been at. Unhappily, the Accies fans will only remember it with a shiver down their spines. It will be easier to go through the goals one by one...
The home side equalised after only four minutes of the second half when some neat footwork gave Ian Ross a chance to plant the ball past Dave McEwan and low into the far corner. The goal came after Brian Carrigan gave away an unnecessary foul in the centre circle for which he was yellow carded by referee Hardie.
Accies went straight back up the park to regain the lead within a minute of losing the goal when Brown Ferguson played a neat 1-2 outside the area. He ran on and the ball was thumped against him and flew over Corr's head and dropped well over the line.
Just six minutes later, the home side equalised again when former Accies man Michael Moore headed home at the near post after the ball came in from the Accies right. A critical incident followed this when Mark McLaughlin, who had been injured earlier, was replaced by Sandy Hodge.
With Accies on the rack, the home side won a corner kick on their right. The inswinging corner was judged perfectly and no-one matched the run of Michael Moore, whose bullet header gave McEwan no chance. Just an hour played and it was 3-2 for the home team
Three minutes later and Accies were level again. This time it was Brown Ferguson (again) who fired a shot from 20 yards that was deflected over Corr's head and into the net.
Just when we hoped that Accies would take charge of the game, they again lost a bad goal at the back. It was yet another corner and yet another run and free header for Michael Moore to complete his quick hat trick of headers to make it 4-3 to Stranraer.
Three minutes later and it was all square again. Scott MacKenzie timed his pass perfectly to Brown Ferguson on the right wing. Brown got to the byeline and whipped over a great cross which was met by a superb diving header by Graeme Jones to make it 4-4.
The game settled down for a bit and Accies continued to do quite well going forward. But that frailty with crossballs was illustrated yet again with 9 minutes left , when Leigh Hinds did well at the byeline to beat Steven Thomson and put over a good cross that was headed home by Dene Shields.
Accies did their best to get back into the game yet again but the home side came closer, with one of the Stranraer players hitting an excellent shot against Dave McEwan's post. Graeme Jones hit a cracker near the end from the edge of the area but it skimmed just over the crossbar. Then it was time up and the long journey home.
It's hard to contemplate a game in which you score four goals away from home but come away with nothing. I think the critical factor in this game were the injuries that led to the absence of Marvyn Wilson in the heart of the midfield and the early substitution of Mark McLaughlin. Wilson would have been in the thick of things in the middle of the park where Accies were frequently overrun. Clearly, when you lose four goals to crosses then there's something going wrong at the back.
Hamilton: McEwan, Robertson, Thomson, McLaughlin (Hodge), Fleming, Neil, Ferguson, MacKenzie, Jones, Tunbridge (Keogh), Carrigan (Gilhaney) Subs Not Used: McMullan, Jellema.
Ref: C Hardie
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