Hamilton Academical 1 - 0 St Mirren: Flavio dishes Saints the bitter taste of defeat

Published on Saturday 13 March 2010 21:03

F Paixao 89

A LATE winner from Portuguese forward Flavio Paixao, pictured below, took Hamilton above yesterday's opponents and into tenth position, six points clear of bottom club Falkirk, who visit New Douglas Park on Saturday. Paixao now believes victory over Steven Pressley's side will practically guarantee survival in the top flight.

"I am confident that we can beat them and that we will stay in the SPL," said the striker. "This was the most important goal of my Hamilton career.

Accies were in the ascendancy from the first whistle. Mickael Antoine-Curier had the ball in the net from a Dougie Imrie cross inside the opening minute but was ruled offside.

Saints goalkeeper Paul Gallacher then produced two fine saves to beat away a 25-yarder from Imrie and a point-blank header from Mark McLaughlin.

The best chance of the first half fell to the visitors in the 41st minute. Craig Dargo's perfectly-weighted pass left Andy Dorman with only Tomas Cerny to beat. Without a goal since October, though, the midfielder's shot lacked conviction and Cerny made the save. Dargo, following up, ought to have found the net but lashed his attempt against the underside of the bar.

Graham Carey, the midfielder on loan at Paisley from Celtic, also struck the woodwork with a free-kick from 30 yards in the 54th minute as the visitors gained a foothold in the game.

It was an untidy affair, however, littered with fouls and referee Euan Norris handed out ten yellow cards.

"We were brilliant for the first 25 minutes, when we just battered them," said Accies manager Billy Reid. "They came back and hit the bar twice but I think we merited the win.

"This has been coming for weeks and I have to give credit to Flavio. He started the season on the bench but he's now scored four goals in our last seven games and if we can beat Falkirk here next weekend we'll open up a nine-point gap and that's substantial at this stage of the season."

St Mirren boss Gus MacPherson now faces the task of attempting to persuade his players that they can overcome Rangers in Sunday's next Co-operative Insurance Cup final.

"That's an easy game to lift them for," he claimed. "It's the remaining league games which will tell us about their character.

"We need them to step up to the plate and get us out of this situation. This was a sickener, to say the least. It looked as though it was going to peter out at 0-0.

"We've both had good chances to score but losing the goal so late meant that we had no time to react. Andy Dorman had the best chance of the game but you have to credit their 'keeper for making the save.

St Mirren have now taken just one point from nine SPL matches on the road since their last away win at Falkirk five months ago. Accies, by contrast, hadn't won at home since beating Hearts 2-1 on 6 December.