Queens 1 Hamilton 1 |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jan 04 2007 at 7:49 PM |
I walked down to Palmerston today with a cold wind blowing and a clear sky overhead and I was confident that we could continue with our recent run of home wins. After the decent showing from the lads at Firhill last week when we drew with second place Thistle I was sure we would get the better of third placed Accies.
The crowd was just over 1700 today with about 150 away fans coming down the A74.
Queens started again with Ian McCalls favoured 3-5-2 formation. Craig Hinchcliffe again starting in goals behind a back 3 of Thomson, Laughlin and Henderson with Paton and Gibson as wing backs and O’Neill, Scally and Moon in midfield. Again it was the hard working but lack of goals pair of Weir and Barrowman up front. Queens started brightly and made all the running early on and after 5 mins Barrowman headed over a cross from Paton then a minute later another shot from the on loan Killie man went over the top but we had not long to wait for the opening goal. John O’Neill burst through into the box and was nudged by McEwan the Accies keeper. He went down and Ref Mike Tumilty pointed to the spot. Jonjo brushed himself down and stepped up to take the kick. There was never any doubt that he would score and he blasted an unstoppable shot past the keeper to give Queens an early lead.
We continued to dominate and all we needed was a second goal. A Warren Moon free kick was cleared away by the Hamilton defence and then the first yellow card of the game went to Hamiltons Alex Neil for a foul on Willie Gibson. Andy Barrowman was seeing plenty of the ball and had a couple of good runs at the Accies defence firstly seeing his shot blocked then another deflected. Willie Gibson then saw his name go into the book after 24 mins after a softish foul on the far side. This yellow card unfortunately came back to haunt us later in the game !
There was then a good move involving Paton , Weir and Barrowman which resulted in a corner which the keeper knocked over the bar.
On the half hour mark a Hamilton player hit a shot from inside the box which Hinchcliffe parried for a corner. The visitors were slowly getting more into the game but Queens had another chance after 35 mins when O’Neill played the ball into the box for Barrowman but the Accies defenders cleared the danger. Then a good ball across goal by Warren Moon was just missed by Willie Gibson at the back post. On the stroke of half time Queens were fortunate not to concede a goal when O’Neill failed to clear the ball properly and an Accies player seen his shot come off the underside of the bar before it was cleared by Jim Laughlin.
The second half saw Hamilton bring on the excellent Richard Offiong and Mark Gilhany. Both these young players have plenty of pace and their introduction seemed to turn the game. Offiong was at Newcastle and while there had been capped by England at U20 level. He certainly seems like a player who could play at a higher level and in the second half he caused the Queens defence no end of problems with his strength and direct running. Accies started well but the game was turned on its head after 57 mins when Willie Gibson lost the ball but tried hard to regain it and he and the Accies player fell to the ground with another couple of players in close attendance. The ref blew his whistle and then showed Gibson another yellow card. This seemed very harsh as from my position he did not seem to do much wrong. So Queens were now down to 10 men and the Ref seemed to be doing us no Favours at all. As for Hamiltons Manager Billy Reid he must have encroached onto the field of play at least 6 times but neither the Ref or his assistant done a thing ! It was now all Accies as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser. Ian McCall then brought on Callaghan for Moon. In hindsight it would have been better if he had replaced Willie Gibson at halftime. Accies had most of the ball with Offiong looking a threat all the time but they never created a clear cut chance. Queens then replaced Graham Weir with Scott McKenzie as they tried to defend the slender one goal advantage. Accies continued to force the play and had a couple of corners which we managed to clear but in the end the goal arrived. Hamilton got a free kick 20 yards out which went over the top and from the resulting goal kick the ball was played back into the box and not cleared and in came Offiong to rifle the ball past Hinchcliffe to level the scores at 1-1.
Queens came forward a few minutes later and good work from O’Neill saw the ball played to Barry Callaghan who shot wide. Then shortly after from a Callaghan free kick Jonjo headed the ball back across goal and I think it was Jim Thomson who shot wide. In the final minute Scot Robertson came on for John O’Neill and soon afterwards the final whistle went.
The Ref was given a hostile send off as he left the pitch after what can only be described as a below average performance. The Queens players fought hard but after the sending off it was more trying to hold on to what we had got than looking for the killer second goal. I thought Jim Thomson and Eric Paton had good games today as did Warren Moon and I was sorry to see him subbed but my Man of the Match was goalkeeper Craig Hinchcliffe who was confident and assured thoughout and had no chance with the Hamilton goal.
The bad news after the game was that Gretna had been beaten by Airdrie who jumped above us in the table but with Ross County being thumped at home by Partick we have now closed in on them a little. Its now a vital game next Saturday when we take on Airdrie Utd at Palmerston. The Scottish Cup 3rd round draw at 5pm was not brilliant for us either with an away trip to Dens Park to face Dundee in early January.
Musky.
