Accies Away April18th

[old caley girl]

11 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

That’s us on 54 points now, with our hopes still very much in the balance - yet in each of the last 5 seasons that tally would have been enough to secure 4th place.

Aye its incredibly tight. Just got to keep going and hope.....

[Satan]

20 minutes ago, STFU said:

Hopefully we chuck it in the last couple of games as I can't afford the play off matches

If we make the playoffs it will be another set of nerve shredding battles against teams we've struggled with all season.

Then again we now have form on our side...

[Jaggernaut]

I said before the game would our desire to get into the playoffs be greater than theirs to stay in this league, and you can certainly say that our boys have desire in bucket fulls. A fantastic three points. Can't wait for the weekend now. 

[tm4tj]

And.........

Falkirk lost 2-1 at home to Edinburgh City.

 

[old caley girl]

4 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

And.........

Falkirk lost 2-1 at home to Edinburgh City.

 

Their recent form hasn't been great. Ours however......

[ymip]

We had so much possession in and around their box but just couldn't pull the trigger, particularly in the first half. The Accies goal certainly focused the team's attention. The boys showed real grit and determination to get back in the game then bag the winner. Absolute scenes in the away section when Billy coolly slotted home the winner. Two tricky home games lie ahead but it feels like momentum is on our side. Spent the whole journey home discussing games where we dropped points which could have made the difference in the title race.

A crazy few weeks lie ahead. Time for the latent support to come out and get behind the team.

[RiG]

Missed the first 10 - 15 minutes due to a puncture on the M8 but apparently we were quite good at the start of the match. Unfortunately what followed was about 60 minutes of pretty turgid stuff characterised by ICT failing to put in anything resembling a final ball and Accies being staggeringly incapable of passing the ball to their own team mates.

The game seemed to spark into laugh when a very soft free kick saw Smith find the net with the aid of a deflection. The equaliser came after MacKay crossed for Shaw at the back post who saw his initial effort blocked but he was able to bundle in the rebound . And Mckay's winner arrived after he was picked out by Welsh and he coolly passed the ball beyond Fulton to secure a massive three points.

Not a particularly great performance and some players were blowing out their backsides around the 70 minute mark. It was very surprising it took us falling behind before Dodds made any changes. Boyd was disappointing and again Shaw didn't look at his most useful as a 10. The front three that started last night just didn't really work for most of the game although there apparently was a good spell at the start of the game where they all looked lively. The subs likely turned the game for us with MacKay and Samuels, whilst not necessarily turning in stunning performances, brought a good bit of pace to a sluggish team.

Accies were rank rotten. They went through a spell in the second half where they genuinely couldn't find a team mate with a pass despite being under no pressure whatsoever. Hard to see how they are going to avoid either automatic relegation or dropping down via the playoffs.

Edited April 19, 2023 by RiG

[Naelifts]

All correct ymip  ( comes up UKIP in predictive text........you might want to look at that). A great night. Another crazy season

[Naelifts]

RIG ....you did miss 15 to 20 mins of sustained attacking featuring accurate passing and good running off the ball however the final ball wasnt there and at times we looked like we wanted to walk the ball in or score the perfect goal........like Spain!!! If we had been sharper the game could have been in the bag by half time.......

Much more fun the way we did it.

Ps Hope Maryhills head is ok.

[Eagle4Caley]

10 hours ago, Satan said:

If we make the playoffs it will be another set of nerve shredding battles against teams we've struggled with all season.

Then again we now have form on our side...

Last nights result was one of those that makes this season possibly legendary, I was at another match, with more than one eye on my phone, we went behind, I went 'ahhh!, but still had a sneaky feeling, that on a night the whole season could be defined by, we would get something

Last weekend, I looked at the upcoming fixtures and realised that we could still claim AUTOMATIC promotion...highly improbable one might say, although only Cove beating Dundee away actually is. Claiming the 2nd spot is do-able [and highly desirable]

And of course we could blow the whole thing

I might be certifiable! BUT in a season when we beat a side that had beaten us 4 times already, and where we might get to the Scottish Cup Final despite being knocked out, virtually anything can happen...that decision to book flights/hotel for the last match of the season looking better as every match goes by

[Eagle4Caley]

11 hours ago, STFU said:

Hopefully we chuck it in the last couple of games as I can't afford the play off matches

Maybe we wont need the play-offs anyway

Yes...I am a bit giddy

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Well I am “in between” RIG and the Borders paramedic guitarist - waiting for the release of “Nathan on the wing”. There was a lot of tippy tappy but it was clinical and impressive at times. But as RIG points out there was NO final killer pass and the end product was usually loss of control or a hoof and when you have Billy and Boyd up front well ??!! I have to concede that I swallowed all my Hubba Bubba when they scored and thought that the Fat Lady had taken over from Lady Luck. But the goal - and the substitutions- was the miracle healer and we were like the ICT of old for 10 exhilarating minutes. We thoroughly deserved the three points as Hamilton were very poor and heading for potential extinction. And - feck me that was our predictions a couple of months ago. I am not going with a Smileymometer and I have very few negatives to muse over. Ridgers, Devine and Deas are as strong a back three combo that we have had for many seasons. Delaney had his best ever performance but - I know I repeat it - Carson is not a full / wing back even if he is always 110% effort and defensively reliable. And is there a better midfield pairing than Allardice and Welsh ?? That five stood out last night. The rest were mediocre to ineffective. Again at the risk of repeating myself Doran is a 20-30 minute substitute and I am not sure how Boyd merited a start. And Dodds missed substituting both much earlier than he did as many in the stands were baying for 10 minutes into the second half. Billy actually had an off day but most of the hits to him were in the air or his colleagues not being on the same footballing brain level - but he simply scores when he feckin wands and Shaw was hot and cold but again he produced the goods. Hope we are not getting too reliant on him . We certainly missed Henderson to take some of the flak off. Not sure what is the possible issue with Samuels as he appears to be fully fit and the best foil up front for McKay. But what a night and now what a season- and more to come and hopefully enjoy As for Mary Hill I nursed him back on the train to Central. How can you worry about glue when you are feckin bald ?? And we had a reassuring chat with a suited and booted Muppet on the journey which confirmed my hope for the future. My only lasting concern is that Rod the Mod still wants to smack me  And the Fat Lady was well muffled and apparently watching from the Invermorriston area - Only feckin joking

Edited April 19, 2023 by IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER

[ymip]

One point that cannot be over stated is how much we've missed Jay Henderson in the past two games. He has been an absolute revelation since we signed him and getting him back in time for the last two league games and semi-final could be pivotal. I'm surprised by comments above regarding Shaw, alongside Henderson a stand out for me this calendar year.

Finally, I had a bit of a moment last night when Billy was bearing down on goal for the winner. Without wishing to sound like some sort of Californian new age hippy there was just something about the way he readied himself for the shot where amongst the hysteria I felt a moment of zen like calm that he was destined to score. An absolutely massive goal from a club legend who richly deserves a bit of glory this season. 

[CaleyHedgehog]

7 hours ago, ymip said:

Time for the latent support to come out and get behind the team.

Maybe the club could have a Pay What You Can match or two for supporters, for our last couple of games in order to whip up a bit of a frenzy in the stands. I know it can be a bit of a kick in the teeth for us season ticket holders, but it would be worth it if the extra support helped us get promotion, and it might attract potential season ticket holders for next season.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Let’s salute them all there was no sign of latency last night.  

 

[RiG]

Highlights, which I assume have been lifted off an old Pixellot (shudder) camera at Hamilton, are now available.

 

[CaleyHedgehog]

Superb, thanks for that. Well done to all the travelling support too.

[Robert]

Great work by Welsh to keep the ball and set up the winner. Who won the ball near the half way line that started the move for the equaliser: hard to see on a mobile: Allardice?

Great character shown to turn that round after conceding to that great free kick. Shame they didn’t show the foul (or as IHE said the very soft foul). 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Robert

[RiG]

2 minutes ago, Robert said:

Great work by Welsh to keep the ball and set up the winner. Who won the ball near the half way line that started the move for the equaliser: hard to see on a mobile: Allardice?

Yeah it was Allardice. Both Welsh and Allardice dominated by the midfield for large parts of the game but you could see the former tiring quite badly as the game wore on. Bizarre that Dodds didn't seem to want to make any changes given this pretty obvious issue.

[The Mantis]

20 hours ago, Robert said:

Great work by Welsh to keep the ball and set up the winner. Who won the ball near the half way line that started the move for the equaliser: hard to see on a mobile: Allardice?

Great character shown to turn that round after conceding to that great free kick. Shame they didn’t show the foul (or as IHE said the very soft foul). 

They must be too embarrassed to show it.

20 hours ago, RiG said:

Yeah it was Allardice. Both Welsh and Allardice dominated by the midfield for large parts of the game but you could see the former tiring quite badly as the game wore on. Bizarre that Dodds didn't seem to want to make any changes given this pretty obvious issue.

It was Carson - Shaw - Welsh - Mckay. You can see Allardice inside of Shaw.

[RiG]

1 hour ago, TheMantis said:

It was Carson - Shaw - Welsh - Mckay. You can see Allardice inside of Shaw.

He was asking about who won the ball for the equaliser 

[The Mantis]

1 hour ago, RiG said:

He was asking about who won the ball for the equaliser 

Ah right. Telt.