2007-03-03 Airdrie United

Accies maintained their position at 4th place in the league when they cruised to a 3-0 win against Airdrie United on Saturday. Richard Offiong opened the scoring with a fine shot in the 12th minute and teenager Brian Easton scored his first senior goal after 33 minutes to double Accies lead. A textbook Offiong header sealed it for Accies just after half time in what turned out to be an easy win for the Hoops.

Hamilton Accies 3 Airdrie United 0

New Douglas Park, Hamilton

Saturday, 3rd March 2007

Accies maintained their position near the top of the league with this richly deserved win against a lacklustre Airdrie side. Manager Billy Reid made just one change to the team that had defeated Dundee 7 days earlier, with teenager James McCarthy replacing Tony Stevenson. The visitors were at full strength, with defender Neil McGowan having won his appeal against his red card against Queen of the South. Former Accies player Ian Harty, who never kicked a ball in anger for the club, was on the bench.

While it is true that Accies deserved to win the game, it also true that the visitors had the better of things in the opening ten minutes of the game. Accies took those ten minutes to find their feet and didn't see an awful lot of the ball. However, the Diamonds didn't threaten Sean Murdoch's goal. ironically, Accies took the lead with virtually their first attack of the game. The goal was created by Mark Gilhaney, who twisted and turned past Marc Smyth back before crossing into the middle. The ball was headed back out of the area by James McArthur, with two Accies players going for it. Richard Offiong got there first and fired a fine right footed shot past the motionless Stephen Robertson in the United goal. Offiong then sprinted over to the Accies dugout and a shoe-shine celebration with substitute Jamie McClen.

Offiong was really in the mood after this and he came mighty close to doubling the lead when Alex Neil found him on the left wing. He cut inside and fired left foot shot that beat Robertson but just went past the post. There was an unmarked Accies forward in the middle but I don't think anyone really believed that Richard wouldn't take the shot. Accies were not covering themselves in glory at the back and this led to Airdrie having a couple of decent opportunities. A bad kick out from a goal kick by Sean Murdoch sent the ball straight to Bryan Prunty. He was soon closed down but he laid the ball off to Steven McDougall, whose shot from 20 yards whistled past the post. Soon afterwards Prunty managed to dodge through the Accies defence before rounding Murdoch. Happily, he had gone a bit wider than he would have liked and Tom Parratt was able to clear his netbound shot from the line.

Airdrie probably thought they had a chance of getting something from the game, but Accies grabbed a second goal just after the half hour to really put themselves in the driving seat. It was a very simple goal but it was memorable all the same, given that it was the first senior goal scored by teenage defender Brian Easton. Derek Fleming took a free kick on the left and it was headed into the 6 yard box by David Elebert. It fell kindly to Brian and he buried it from close range before being engulfed by his delighted teammates.

Accies were unfortunate not to extend their lead even further, when they broke up an Airdrie attack and charged forward on the counter-attack. This meant that they had three players running towards one defender. Richard Offiong was just contemplating the best pass to play when he was cynically tripped from behind by another Airdrie defender.

Accies sealed the game within a minute of the restart of the game after the break. It started when Derek Fleming, who was excellent throughout the game, found mark Gilhaney in space down the left. Wee Mark skipped past the full back before delivering an inviting cross to the edge of the 6 yard box. It was met by Richard Offiong, who rose high to bullet a header past Robertson via the underside of the crossbar. It was a great goal and really no more than Accies deserved.

A few minutes later, Billy Reid decided to replace Alex Neil with Jamie McClen. It appeared initially to be a strange decision, but it was a good idea to give McClen a decent chunk of the second half given that Alex Neil's first half yellow card meant that he is facing a spell in the stand. McClen showed in the time he played that he is a good player and it will be interesting to see how he fits into the team until the end of the season.

There were no further goals in the game but Accies continued to dominate without creating many clear cut chances. The best opportunity fell to Jamie McClen, who ran clear on goal after a long kick out by Sean Murdoch. He did everything right and held off the challenge of the Airdrie defender, before lifting the ball over Robertson and the crossbar. Accies made a couple of other changes, with the tiring Richard Offiong being replaced by Brian Wake and Paul McLeod coming on for David Winters. Both players received well deserved extended applause from the Accies fans. Wake did his usual good shift for his time on the park and had one volley from a Gilhaney cross that went narrowly past.

This was really an easy win for Accies against a United side that is beginning to struggle at the foot of the league. Ian Harty came on for the last half hour of the game but showed none of the predatory instincts that brought him to Hamilton two summers ago. In fact, he ran into the " brick wall" of Elebert and Easton and made no impression on the game at all.

Richard Offiong won the sponsor's bottle of champagne and there were few arguments against that. There were no failures for Accies; from goalkeeper through to substitutes they all performed well.

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After the game, manager Billy Reid said, "It’s a derby, and we’re delighted to score three goals and keep a clean sheet. I thought we deserved the win overall. It was sunny in the first half and that made the park a bit sticky. When the rain came in the second half, the pitch was a wee bit slicker, and we could then pass the ball, which we did very well, and maybe could have added another couple of goals.

“The manner of the victory didn’t surprise me. We have good players here, we’ve got a wee bit of continuity now, and we’ve won four out of our last six games. For the first time since I’ve been Manager, we’ve had players that I haven’t been able to pick – there were three guys sitting in the stand who could have played in the team, and I haven’t been able to do that in the two years that I’ve been here. Competition for places is healthy, I’ve got guys who want to play, and I see some of the young guys maturing in front of my eyes, which is pleasing.

“You could see the calibre of Jamie McClen, who hadn’t played for seven weeks, but he is a fantastic football player. We’ve got a lot of good players here, and we’re moving in the right direction. With the pace and power that Richard Offiong has at this level, he can do anything that he wants to in this League. He needs to be confident, get his head right, and he’s showing that at the moment, so all credit to him. If we get him fully fit and he’s confident I don’t think there are many in the league that are better than him. I believe that if Richard fires on all cylinders, he can be a real menace in this division, but you’ve got to do it week in, week out.

“He’s starting to do that and it’s up to me, as the Manager, to keep his feet on the ground and make sure he performs week in, week out. But we play one up front, and he’s a handful for anyone in this League, as you could see with the two goals he scored out there. Brian Easton got his first goal and it’s something that we’ve been working on with him. He’s a big lad at 6’ 2”, but probably doesn’t attack the ball as well as he should in the opposing box. I think he’s grown in confidence in the last two games, and he is maturing. Brian is 18-years-old, has played 25 times this season, and I thought he was outstanding.

“What I said to the players before the game was that we’re four points behind St Johnstone, and if we were to win on Saturday and St Johnstone lost, there would only be a point in it. I believe that St Johnstone won’t finish too far behind Gretna, so we’re looking at them. We’ve got Gretna and St Johnstone coming up at home, but I’m not foolish enough to stand here and say that we’re going to win the league – that would be daft. What I will say is that with a wee bit of continuity in team selection, we can give anybody a game here.”

Hamilton Accies: Murdoch, Parratt, Elebert, Easton, Fleming, McCarthy, McArthur, Neil (McClen 53), Gilhaney, Winters (McLeod 80), Offiong (Wake 69). Subs Not Used: Gibson, Jellema.

Booked: Neil, Parratt. Goals: Offiong 12, Easton 33, Offiong 46.

Airdrie Utd: Robertson, Proctor, Smyth (Twigg 50), McGowan, Lukaszewski, Lovering (McKeown 69), McDougall (Harty 63), MacDonald, Holmes, Prunty, Taylor. Subs Not Used: McKenna, Hollis.

Booked: Holmes, Taylor, McKeown.

Att: 1,714

Ref: C MacKay

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