Hamilton 2-2 Falkirk: Falkirk grab a share of the spoils at Hamilton

Published on Saturday 20 March 2010 20:11

Hamilton 2 Arfield 25; Antoine-Curier 50 Falkirk 2 Mensing 57 pen; Flynn 59

FALKIRK battled back at New Douglas Park to earn what may yet prove to be a priceless point in their battle against relegation, but manager Steven Pressley was left seething over the award of a penalty against his side for the second successive week.

Referee Dougie McDonald was the official in his sights last night after he adjudged Broan McLean to have pulled down Mickael Antoine-Curier.

"Both managers can be satisfied with the application and desire of their players," he said. "There's no doubt that there were two fully committed teams out there.

"However, once again we've been punished by a penalty decision. There were three claims in the game and I thought he got two of them correct. Both handballs were ball-to-hand and not hand-to-ball.

"I haven't seen the replay of the other incident but, according to Brian McLean there was no contact and that's what I thought at the time.

"We are being punished just now for some refereeing decisions and that's making life harder for us but we'll certainly dig in and we came back here again."

There was a noticeable sense of urgency from both sides from the first whistle, with chances at both ends inside the opening eight minutes.

Ryan Flynn, impressive throughout, tested Tomas Cerny with an angled drive which the goalkeeper was happy to parry while Robert Olejnik had a shot from 20 yards, which Robert Olejnik could only have seen at the last second, turned behind for a corner.

The Dutchman then twisted in mid-air to push a point-blank header from Antoine-Curier over the bar as the home side poured forward in search of the opening goal.

Falkirk took advantage of that gung-ho approach by scoring on the counter. When Flavio Paixao's free-kick 25 yards out failed to find a team-mate, the Bairns broke briskly and effectively. A desperate diving header from James Wesolowski prevented Flynn from having the entire Accies half to himself but the winger chased after the ball and, with the bulk of the home team AWOL, released Scott Arfield.

Tomas Cerny will almost certainly feel that he should have held the midfielder's shot but Arfield displayed more composure with the rebound than he had done with his original effort and slotted the ball into the unguarded net.

Falkirk would have gone in at the interval two in front if it hadn't been for an appalling miss from Pedro Moutinho after Accies' Martin Canning had misjudged a clearance from Olejnik and allowed it to bounce.

Moutinho, who had stolen in behind the defender, was left with only Cerny to beat from 12 yards but was much too nonchalant, knocking it wide with the outside of his right foot.

That miss proved costly indeed when the home side restored parity in the 50th minute and it was a goal which Olejnik will be in no hurry to watch again.

He started to come for Paixao's corner but failed to claim it and Antoine-Curier was left with a simple header at the far post.

Accies moved in front from the penalty spot after McLean appeared to take the legs from the Guadaloupe striker. Surprisingly, referee Dougie McDonald took no further action against the defender and Simon Mensing converted the resulting penalty.

Two minutes later Falkirk equalised when dilatory defending at a Moutinho free-kick gave Flynn a sight of goal and his scuffed shot from 12 yards beat Cerny.

McLean was eventually cautioned for a professional foul on Flavio Paixao, which only served to focus more attention on McDonald's decision not to penalise him earlier.

Hamilton manager Billy Reid, however, refused to make a big issue of it afterwards.

"I don't have any complaints about the referee. The positive we take from this is that we're now ahead of Kilmarnock and, after the start we had to this season, that's remarkable."

MAN OF THE MATCH

Former Liverpool man Ryan Flynn was a constant thorn in Hamilton's side. The Falkirk midfielder scored one goal, made another and just generally being a nuisance.

QUICK FACT

Accies have dropped seven points in their three matches against Falkirk this season.

TALKING POINT

Referee Dougie McDonald's decision to award Hamilton a penalty and not take action against Brian McLean, the defender adjudged to have committed the last-man foul.