Falkirk 2 - 0 Hamilton Academical: May gets the gorilla off his back as young Bairns notch their first win

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 19:39

Mitchell 63; Bullen 79

THE long wait is finally over. Four months and 14 matches since their last victory, Falkirk's beleaguered players will finally be able to take a win bonus home to their wives or, in most cases, their mothers. Eight of the aptly-nicknamed Bairns were 21 or under and this success will instil some much-needed belief in Eddie May's squad, which is now only one point adrift of Hamilton and Kilmarnock.

The manager was, understandably, relieved afterwards. "That wasn't a monkey off my back: it was a gorilla," he said. "Hamilton were far better than us in the first half and we were lucky to be level but we got better as the game went on. My board has been fantastic with me. They've had nothing but success here for six years now but when things don't go well we're not a sacking club."

Mickael Antoine-Curier ought to have put Accies ahead in the fifth minute when a Chris Mitchell clearance was deflected into his path. However, goalkeeper Robert Olejnik read the situation brilliantly and raced from his goal to smother the striker's shot. James Wesolowski posed a threat with his willingness to shoot from range and he twice came close to breaking the deadlock.

The best Falkirk could muster during a flat first-half performance was a 25-yard drive from Vitor Lima which Tomas Cerny saved low to his right. Accies were the dominant force, though, and Mark McLaughlin's header from Richard Hastings' free-kick nicked a Falkirk defender before shaving the outside of Olejnik's left-hand post.

Hamilton's biggest problem, this season and last, has been the lack of a cutting edge and Antoine-Curier was thwarted again in the 28th minute. Sent clear by Hastings' incisive pass, the Guadeloupe striker put his foot through the ball but Brian McLean threw himself in front of it to save the day.

However, there was no such excuse for Antoine-Curier two minutes from the interval. Wesolowski's through-ball left him with only Olejnik to beat but his shot from just inside the penalty area was so weak that it barely reached the Dutchman.

Mitchell provided the breakthrough with a sweetly struck free-kick which flew into Cerny's top left-hand corner after Marco Paixao had brought down Pedro Moutinho 20 yards out.

Olejnik maintained that lead straight from the restart with a superb diving save from Simon Mensing, although Antoine-Curier's attempt to force home the rebound was pitiful.

The goalkeeper performed heroics again when, at full stretch, he pushed away a 25-yard curler from Wesolowski. Accies piled forward in search of an equaliser and that left them exposed to the sucker punch 11 minutes from time.

Carl Finnigan sent Lee Bullen clear on the right and he shaped to cross before unleashing an unsaveable right-foot shot behind Cerny from an acute angle.

"I tried to pass it on about six occasions but the ball kept bobbling up," said the 38-year-old. "Scott Arfield was screaming for it but Martin Caning spotted that and covered him. That was the right thing for him to do but it gave me the couple of yards I needed to get my head down and batter it. We needed the second goal because they were coming back at us but when I scored it seemed to knock the stuffing out of them."

Hamilton manager Billy Reid was disappointed but not despondent. "We dominated the first (half]," he said. "In terms of character and performance, I couldn't have asked for any more from my team. We won battles all over the park."