New Douglas Park Saturday, April 4th, 2015 k/o 15:00   Scottish Premiership Attendance: 2,035         Hamilton Academical 1-1 St Johnstone
2014 /15

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Fiesty - plenty of St Johnstone fans to bait the home fans. Accies 1 St Johnstone 1 Administrator Published on 04 April 2015 Hits: 44 Print Email On an afternoon when the match finished all square at 1 - 1 it was Nigel Hasselbaink who was voted the Accies man of the match. Nigel is pictured receiving his inscribed tankard, sponsored by Mueller Wiseman Dairies, from Shay Cunning who is the grandson of the Accies kitman Danny Cunning. Accies had player/manager Martin Canning ordered off as they were held by St Johnstone. Ali Creawford scored an early goal to give Accies the lead but after the ordering off St Johnstone grabbed the initiative and Brain Graham equalised in the second half. You can hear interviews with Assistant Manager Guillaume Beuzelin, Ali Crawford and Michael Devlin on the club''s AudioBoom channel. Mike Bishop''s Match Pictures. Hamilton Accies 1 St Johnstone 1 SPFL Premiership New Douglas Park, Hamilton Saturday, 4th April 2015 The wait for Martin Canning''s first win as the Accies player/manager continued after another game that we could so easily have won and also nearly lost. The big turning point of the game came in the 58th minute when the gaffer was harshly shown a red card by referee Greg Aitken for a foul on Michael O''Halloran. At that time we were still ahead thanks to Ali Crawford''s delightful early strike, but after we wet down to 10 men the visitors attacked profusely and at the end a draw was about right. After the poor result at Fir Park 15 days earlier, Canning rang the changes with places in the team for himself, Stephen Hendrie, Louis Longridge, Darian MacKinnon and Nigel Hasselbaink. Dougie Imrie was suspended and Darren Lyon was able to be included on the bench despite his red card at Fir Park, with his 2 match suspension having been served by missing a couple of games for the under 20 team. The Saints had former Accie Brian Easton in their lineup. Accies scored the only goal of the first half in the 7th minute. Ziggy Gordon won the ball with a fine tackle and laid it off to the right wing. The cross found its way to Nigel Hasselbaink, who spotted Ali Crawford unmarked. Ali showed great composure in lifting the ball over Mannus to score from 10 yards. That was a great start for Accies but there were to be no more goals before half time. Michael McGovern didn''t have any saves to make and Accies had been the better team up to that point. Saints made a change at the interval with Murray Davidson being replaced by Simon Lappin. The new man didn''t take long to make an impression on the game and he was cautioned in the 52nd minute for tugging the jersey of Ziggy Gordon as he built an Accies attack. That one culminated in a free kick that Ali Crawford sent narrowly wide of the post. Just a few minutes later, Ziggy beat Lappin again and this time received a crack on the shin pad for his trouble. It was a clear foul and a second caution for Lappin looked certain, but the referee merely smiled and didn''t even speak to the Saints man. Saints were playing better now and stretched the Accies defence quite a lot. One of these attacks ended with Michael O''Halloran just beating Martin Canning to the ball 30 yards out. Canning, at full strength, brought O''Halloran down and again the referee stunned the Accies support by making a decision they didn''t like, this time by showing the outstanding Accies man a red card. The Accies players protested their gaffer''s innocence, but the referee was unmoved and Canzo had to walk. A quick change was made, with Danny Redmond sacrificed so that Jesus Garcia Tena could come on, but as Canning left the pitch so did our realistic hopes of winning the game. The remaining half hour of the game was difficult for the stretched Accies team, but they let nobody down. Crosses rained in, tough tackles were made and we had the occasional counter attack with man of the match Nigel Hasselbaink a constant thorn in the side of the St Johnstone defence. However, a goal seemed inevitable and it duly arrived in the 72nd minute when Brian Graham rose highest at the back post to head in a cross from the left. That gave St Johnstone renewed encouragement but they lacked that moment of inspiration that could have brought them the winner. Near the end, both Louis Longridge and Darian MacKinnon were cautioned for kicking the ball away. (Darian''s effort nearly, but not quite, reached the Morrison''s car park). So it was another frustrating day but our haul against St Johnstone this season has been good, with 7 points from 3 games. The whole team gave everything and were a credit to their manager, who will now sadly have to watch the game at Tannadice next weekend from the stand. There won''t be any other suspensions to influence the team selection, with Dougie Imrie available. Accies: McGovern, Gordon, Hendrie (MacDonald 78), Canning, Devlin, Gillespie, Crawford, MacKinnon, Longridge, Hasselbaink (Brophy 80) & Redmond (Garcia Tena 60) Unused substitutes: Hill, Scotland, Docherty & Lyon Red Card: Canning Cautions: Longridge, MacKinnon Goal: Crawford (7) St Johnstone: Mannus, Mackay, Easton, Anderson, Scobbie, O''Halloran (Kane 84), Millar, Davidson (Lappin 45), Swanson (Croft 80), Wotherspoon & Graham Unused substitutes: Wright, Banks, Caddis & Miller Cautions: Lappin, Anderson Goal: Graham (72) Referee: Greg Aitken Assistants: Graham Chambers, Stephen Mitchell & Stephen Finnie Attendance: 2032