Accies at home Tuesday night

[tm4tj]

Topish v Bottomish

 

Hamilton Accies are the visitors to the Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday night at 7:45pm. This game was called off in the aftermath of the passing of Queen Elizabeth on 8th September. We had just come off the back of a dismal three game loss before beating Raith Rovers at Starks Park. That has now turned into a five game winning run of Championship games which has put us top equal on points with Partick Thistle, one of the teams we beat during that run. 

MATCH/TICKET INFO

 

Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	15	5	4	6	25	19	+6
Away	11	6	2	3	17	13	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	26	11	6	9	42	32	+10

It seems that the away side have the edge in fixtures between these sides over the years, but there;s not a lot in it. Recent games show that Accies have the edge although we pumped them 4-0 in the last meeting last season as we warmed up for the play-offs and Accies wound down their season.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

4 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

 

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Partick Thistle 10 6 2 2 23 13 20 2. Inverness CT 10 6 2 2 14 9 20 3. Ayr United 10 5 2 3 20 13 17 4. Dundee 11 5 2 4 19 16 17 5. Morton 11 5 2 4 15 13 17 6. Queens Park 11 5 2 4 15 19 17 7. Raith Rovers 10 4 0 6 11 12 12 8. Cove Rangers 11 3 2 6 14 18 11 9. Arbroath 10 1 4 5 7 14 7 10. Hamilton Ac. 10 1 4 5 8 19 7

Midweek Fixtures (19:45)

TUESDAY 18TH OCTOBER

Inverness CT v Hamilton    

WEDNESDAY 19TH OCTOBER

 Arbroath v Rovers

Last Time Out

After some inept performances, Inverness came away from Stark's Park with all three points. A Scott Allardice penalty and a goal in time added on from Billy Mckay secured the win against a punchless Raith Rovers. Many were doubting if we had the bottle for the battle. Well, we won this fight, but the war will continue and some optimism and confidence will return after this game played without seven injured players. Credit where it's due for this mini turnaround. Here's where we are now. We have since beaten Dundee, Ayr, Partick and Cove for five wins out of five, four of them coming away from home.

Hamilton over that same period have only picked up one point, a draw at Cove. Of the four defeats, the abyss was a 5-0 thrashing by Morton. However their last game was a narrow 1-2 defeat by League leaders Partick Thistle. The stats will show that Accies created plenty of opportunities against Partick. Queens Park and Dundee were the other winners over Accies. The second Dundee goal came in the 95th minute, so a tough run for John Rankin's side which puts them in bottom place, level on points with the Smokies.

Latest Team News

Sutherland, Walsh, Samuels, Welsh and Devine were all missing at Cove. Allardice and MacGregor may well be added to that list now after the bruising affair at Balmoral. We only had six subs last time, story of our season so far.

 

Eck's Accies catch-up, unchanged since postponed game

With ex ICT player John Rankin taking over from outgoing manager Stuart Taylor in the summer break he has taken in some new faces at Hamilton. Rankin spent a season as assistant manager at New Douglas Park and prior managerial experience at Hearts U17 & U18 teams.

Out are.

Joe Hilton goalkeeper saw his loan from Blackburn U21 ended after 16 Championship starts last season.

Backs Mihai Popescu end of loan, Adam McGowan currently on loan to Tranent JFC and Kieran Macdonald away on a free to FC Edinburgh.

Of the midfield players departed are Ronan Hughes off to East Kilbride and Josh Mullin recalled to Livingston after loan expired.

David Moyo, centre forward has been transferred to Barrow AFC. Winger Kai Kennedy the perpetual loan player from Rangers FC is now out on loan at Falkirk FC so will not appear against us in the Championship this season.

Rankins new recruits.

Michael Doyle a right back arrives from Queens Park FC, no fee involved.

Three players added to the midfield are Lucas De Bolle on loan from Newcastle FC youth to U 21 level. Another Newcastle youngster is Reagan Thomson in on a free transfer and Jonny Ngandu has signed from the Coventry U21 squad.

On the left-wing Dario Zanatta previously of the Hearts youth system signed via Raith Rovers FC.

On loan from Fulham FC is centre forward Jean-Pierre Tiehi. Promoted from Hamilton U18s is Ryan One as an attacking centre forward.

Accies had four missing last week: De Bolle, Redfern, Spence, Thomson

[Robert]

Thanks as always Tm4tj, the stats are fascinating as always and highlight why we must not be complacent about tomorrow evening’s game.

It is one we rightly expect to win, but the full team will need to show the same attitude and commitment as in the last home game against Partick.

Zanatta has caused us problems before so whichever of Carson and Duffy plays at right back will need to be switched on. It’s not time for another Dodds right back experiment against a player like him.

I’m looking forward to it as I always enjoy evening games under the floodlights. 

[IBM]

I am looking forward as well to this game but we have to give 100% right from the start to the final whistle.  Although Mantis won't make it go for 7 out of 7.

Edited October 17, 2022 by IBM

[The Mantis]

26 minutes ago, IBM said:

I am looking forward as well to this game but we have to give 100% right from the start to the final whistle.  Although Mantis won't make it go for 7 out of 7.

Accies give me the shivers. The first time we got relegated we could have stayed up with games to spare if we beat them, but we drew. The second time they beat us 3-0 on a January night in 2017, we missed a pen and everybody knew we were down.

[RiG]

Accies were the side we took the fewest points from last season IIRC. Need to turn that around given our likely respective battles this season. 

[Robert]

They beat us home and away last season which should act as a reminder that we need to be at the top of our game.

Hopefully with the schools off there will be a good crowd and also Section 94 will hopefully have a good turn out to give some atmosphere. 

[tm4tj]

[Robert]

Duffy injured in warm up so Ram starting.

Hyde and Harper in central midfield: just hope they can combat Accies’ midfield.

Mckay just on bench.

Perfect conditions for football tonight: set and calm, and the pitch looks excellent.

Three points please!

Edited October 18, 2022 by Robert

[tm4tj]

Duffy injured in warm up and is replaced by Max Ram

[Robert]

Torn apart for that goal. Second best so far. 

[Donald1973]

Once again all we can do is pump high balls to noone yet they get the ball on the ground 3 neat passes and it's in the goal. Why do u insist on making life so difficult 

[Robert]

Plenty huffing and puffing but we’ve not tested them and can’t complain about being behind.

Their passing and movement are sharper and quicker than ours.

A much better performance is needed in the second half if we are to get anything out of this. 

[Satan]

Is there bonus points for how hard,high or long you can kick a football?

 

[Robert]

If he’s fit enough, I’d get Welsh on ASAP along with Mckay. 

[Robert]

Mckay on for Doran. Not sure how long Ram will last as off for treatment. 

[Robert]

Ram back on but Shaw replacing Mackay who pulled up injured in an attack.

We’ve shown plenty effort but don’t look like getting back in it. 

[Robert]

Gone 3 at the back as we desperately try to salvage something. 

[Robert]

Strachan on for the injured Ram. 

[Yngwie]

Such a frustrating result. A tremendous run of 5 league wins sandwiched between home defeats to Morton and bottom side Hamilton, it’s so hard to fathom.

Depleted squad is obviously a factor. Worryingly we lost another 3 to injury tonight, which doesn’t bode well for the next game or two.

[jed5697]

As a witty chap remarked at the game 'Liz Truss could have done a better job'. Hugely disappointing result against Hamilton who aren't any great shakes. Every team in the league would have gubbed us tonight.  Rode the luck a bit in recent games but it ran out tonight. Be a tough few games coming up if we dish up the same fare. 

[DWH]

We are hopeless at home ; has to be sorted out.

So, so frustrating after our recent run.

[No Shin Guards]

I say,

That was about as bad as it gets!!!

Eh what?  

[Robert]

That was poor and no complaints from me about the result. Yes the referee was poor and Hamilton managed to waste time and con the officials, but we only have ourselves to blame.

Too often we played it long and the ball came straight back at us. Too often our passes were wayward.

Hamilton passed and moved better, whilst we never looked like scoring. Ridgers kept it at 1-0 with a decent save whilst Hamilton missed at least one good chance.

Why was Welsh on the bench and not used? The game was crying out for someone to take hold of the ball in midfield. He should have gone on at half time.

Why did Mckay not start?

When Shaw came on, why did we play him on the right and switch Boyd, probably our best hope on the night, to the left? Shaw is so left footed he needed to be on the left whilst Boyd was not as effective after he was switched.

We ended up with a back 3 of Deas, Hyde and Delaney!

We started the evening without Devine, Allardice, MacGregor, Samuels, Walsh and Sutherland. We then lost Duffy before the match even started. Ram got injured early on and again in the second half so it was no surprise he didn’t last the 90. Mackay got injured in an attack and had to be helped off the pitch. Welsh is clearly not fit enough yet given he wasn’t used.

That gives us hope that we can return to form as players return, but is there something wrong behind the scenes that is resulting in us picking up so many injuries, or it is just an unlucky coincidence?

Whatever, we need to get a grip before Saturday or Raith will never have a better opportunity to end their run of failing to beat us.

The atmosphere was flat too for most of the game, with 20 or so Hamilton fans making more noise throughout the first hour or so than all the home fans. I could clearly hear many of the shouts on the pitch.

I can’t see any positive things to take from tonight’s performance. 

Edited October 18, 2022 by Robert

[Alan]

An uninspiring, inept display with no end product. Not one decent attempt at goal in the entire 90 minutes. What a shambles!

[Jaggernaut]

That was one of the worst performances from us for quite some time, there were no positives to take from this game, apart from it's over. Yes, we had injured players missing, but we showed nothing apart from our default setting of 'hoofball' rearing it's head for most of the game. Hamilton were by far the better team, they passed the ball better and created the better chances. We seem to be back to our way of beating the better teams and dropping points against teams in the bottom half of the table.

Dodds, is no tactician. He wasn't very animated on the touchline, so I take it that he was quite happy playing hoofball! He really needed to start with the best eleven on the park, get a hold of the game, and then defend it. What was Billy Mckay doing on the bench? Was Welsh fit enough? If not, why was he on the bench when the game was crying out for a player to take a hold of the midfield.

More injuries today, is there a problem with our training methods or do we just sign injury prone players that no-one else wants? We need to now work out a plan for Saturday, to not get beaten again, we had the chance to go top today, and blew it big time.