St Johnstone 1 - 1 Hamilton Academical: Cerny saves Accies from defeat to rampant Saints

Published on Saturday 28 November 2009 21:30

HE MAY not know it yet but Tomas Cerny could just have produced the very save that keeps Hamilton in the top flight for another season.

With 49 minutes on the clock and under a constant onslaught from a rampant home side Cerny dived in the boggy six-yard box to spectacularly beat away a Murray Davidson netbound half-volley.

With it, he underlined why he's one of the best keepers in the league and how his qualitiesmay yet be enough to rescue Accies again.

"I don't know if that's the best save I've made in a while but it's a very important one," said Cerny. "I saw the shot late and the penalty box wasn't easy to deal with because it was so sandy so I'm happy I got to it and turned it around.

"It wasn't easy because there was a lot of mud and sand on the pitch and my boots were so full of sand I was worried I wouldn't be able to jump.

"Thankfully, I did because we've got a point in a very tight league. It was the same last season. There are a lot of teams fighting down there and we have to keep producing if we want to stay up."

Many would have put this one down as a relegation battle when the season kicked off but while both sides have occupied the lower regions of the league since August, neither look resigned to a dogfight just yet.

In fact St Johnstone, hosting Hamilton in a top flight match for the first time in over 40 years, are a side brimming with self-belief following their superb win at Hearts last week.

And their new-found confidence showed early as they took the game to their Lanarkshire visitors, almost netting inside two minutes. Kenny Deuchar stole a yard off his marker at the back post to meet a Dave Mackay cross. However, he neither got enough direction nor leverage on the effort and the ball was clutched to safety by Cerny.

That early salvo from Saints kicked off what was to prove a highly watchable, keenly contested affair with Saints driving forward almost at will and Hamilton looking a real threat on the break.

It was from one such breakaway that Billy Reid's men carved out a golden chance to score on 14 minutes.

James McArthur, the driving force behind many Hamilton attacks, powered forward and unleashed a 25-yard strike that cannoned off Mickael Antoine-Curier into the hands of Perth keeper Graeme Smith.

Moments later Marco Paixao posted another warning to Saints when his turn and shot from the edge of the penalty box flashed just wide.

With their next attack, on 24 minutes, Hamilton took a deserved lead. A Richard Hastings corner was flicked on at the near post by Simon Mensing and Antoine-Curier found space to power in from close range.

Their lead was to last just five minutes as Kevin Moon's cross was headed over Cerny by Filipe Morais.

With that Saints began to turn the heat on their visitors and twice came close within a minute of taking a halftime lead.

Danny Grainger's corner caused all sorts of confusion in the Accies ranks and Collin Samuel reacted quickest to have a stabatgoal.Cernywascaught in no-man's land but Antoine-Curier bravely blocked and Hamilton cleared their lines.

However, moments later Kevin Rutkiewicz's 25-yard strike took a wicked deflection offMorais and spun just inches over the top – much to the relief of Cerny.

Hamilton then had one final chance of their own to regain control of the game before the break as Richard Hastings found space on the left to unleash a long-range strike that was comfortably held by Smith.

It had been an entertaining opening period but not quite as enjoyable as the faulty scoreboard at McDiarmid Park suggested at the interval.

It read: St Johnstone 8 Hamilton 81 and while we could only dream of such a goal-feast the Saints fans nearly did have a strike to celebrate on 48 minutes.

Murray Davidson showed superb skill to juggle the ballontheedge of the box before firing towards the bottom corner of the net. It appeared net bound until Cerny somehow got down to the effort to clawit away to safety.

It was all Saints at this point and Davidson was unlucky to pass up another chance when he met a Rutkiewicz corner to flash a header wide. Morais then suffered a similar fate moments later with a long-range strike as the pressure began to mount on Accies.

At the other end, Hamilton made their first venture into the Perth side's half on 60 minutes as Hastings' cross was met by Antoine-Curier at the near post.

The Guadeloupe international tried to flick the ball past Smith but was again denied by Rutkiewicz who blocked the effort to concede a corner.

Saints then had a late chance to win it with Morais again trying his luck from distance but once again Cerky was equal to the effort to rescue a point for his side and leave Saints cursing the one that got away.

"To beat Hamilton you need to win all your personal battles and we did that," said Saints boss Derek McInnes.

"But we just didn't do enough in the final third to put the game to bed."