Bell's League Division 1

St Mirren Park, Paisley,

1st April 2006

This was a day on which St Mirren could have won promotion to the SPL. That fact wasn't lost on the home support, who turnedout in great numbers. Nor was it missed by the Accies fans, with many regulars deciding that the post match celebrations by the Champions would have been too painful to witness. Consequently, there were very few Accies fans there to witness an excellent away win by Billy Reid's team. This may well be Accies' final visit to Love St, with St Mirren hoping to move to a new stadium in just over a year's time. If that's true then it was a fine way for Accies to say goodbye to a ground at which they have found success hard to come by in recent years. Apart from the memorable B&Q Cup win over Morton and a fine 2-0 win that included a Billy Reid diving header, most trips to Paisley in the last few years have ended in disappointment. Not this time however.

Billy Reid decided that it would be wrong to use as many young players as he had for the midweek win over Stranraer. This meant that Brown Ferguson and Mark McLaughlin returned to the team. Rudy Torres and Derek Fleming were restored to the bench after missing several games.

After a largely uneventful first half, Accies took a surprise lead after 54 minutes when David Elebert sent a looping header over Tony Bullock from a fine cross by Mark Gilhaney. This was young David's first goal for Accies and he has really deserved it.

Manager Billy Reid made his first change just after the goal, with the injured Mark McLaughlin being replaced by Derek Fleming, who had himself missed a large chunk of the season through injury. Shortly afterwards, youngster Craig Galloway was replaced by former Rangers youth player Scott Agnew. The home side realised that more fire power was needed up front and brought on top scorer Stewart Kean to replace Billy Mehmet.

Kean was the danger man and squandered a couple of good chances as the home side enjoyed the bulk of the possession. With 12 minutes left Accies replaced Juanjo with fellow Spaniard Rudy Torres and Rudy was yellow carded within a minute of his arrival for a foul on Tony Bullock. The Accies goal was under real pressure but the midfield and defence did an excellent closing down job on the St Mirren attack.

However, as so often happens St Mirren were caught out at the other end when Accies clinched the victory with a last minute goal by Brian Wake, his 4th for the club. It came when Rudy Torres headed a Scott Agnew cross towards goal. Tony Bullock made a good save, tipping the ball onto the crossbar. Brian Wake was following up and he made no mistake from close range.

St Mirren: Bullock, van Zanten, Broadfoot, Reilly, McGowne, Potter, Anderson (McGinty 75), Lappin (Reid 36), Sutton, Adam, Mehmet (Kean 62). Subs Not Used: Millen, Smith.

Hamilton Accies: McEwan, Ferguson, Elebert, Thomson, McLaughlin (Fleming 55), Neil, Juanjo (Torres 77), McArthur, Wake, Galloway (Agnew 60), Gilhaney. Subs Not Used: Keogh, Jellema.

Booked: McLaughlin, Neil, Torres. Goal: Elebert 54, Wake 90.

Att: 4,430

Ref: I Brines