Hamilton 0 - 1 Falkirk: Accies fail to grab top spot

NO-ONE, it seems, wants to take the First Division promotion race by the scruff of the neck. Having seen Morton comprehensively brushed aside at Firhill on Friday night, it was all set up nicely for Hamilton to reclaim pole position. But after a 90 minutes in which they fired blanks against a Falkirk side that demonstrated resilience as well as an abundance of youthful vigour, Accies ability to live up to their billing of pre-season favourites for the Championship flag was cast into more doubt.

Heavy rainfall prior to kick-off may have put a punctuation mark on the heatwave in this part of Lanarkshire but it enhanced the spectacle no end, with the ball skidding with pace across the New Douglas Park turf. Falkirk adapted with more assurance to the conditions, harnessing their ability to advance quickly on the break to maximum advantage.

Farid El Allagui was once again to the fore for Steven Pressley’s men, demonstrating some intelligent link play as well as a genuine goal threat. As early as the second minute the Moroccan used his strength to hold off a challenge in the box and set up David Weatherston but the winger did not manage to test Tomas Cerny with a weak effort.

Falkirk’s contingent of youngsters gave the Accies’ experienced central defensive pairing of Martin Canning and Simon Mensing some uncomfortable moments, with Kallum Higginbotham putting in some energetic runs and creating plausible openings for both Weatherston and El Allagui in the opening half hour.

The hosts struggled to string together any cohesive passages of play in the opening 45 minutes, with their distribution and understanding badly awry. A succession of attempted passes ended up rolling harmlessly out of play with a Derek Lyle header from a Stephen Hendrie cross one of the few occasions when they troubled Michael McGovern.

To compound the frustration for Accies manager Billy Reid, it was a poorly-executed corner kick by his side which saw the visitors make the breakthrough. The ball was quickly ushered upfield and some sterling work by Craig Sibbald saw Kieran Duffie released to cross for El Allagui to turn it past Cerny.

Reid gave his starting line-up ten minutes into the second half to try to redeem themselves before overhauling his attacking options by replacing Matt Paterson and Derek Lyle with Grant Anderson and Greig Spence. His side certainly demonstrated a good deal more urgency and they hemmed Falkirk into their own half for long spells. There was little craft on offer from the Lanarkshire side, however, with hardly a shot on target. A couple of efforts from Paul Currie which were blocked at close range by the disciplined Bairns defence were as close as they came.

As expected Reid cut a frustrated figure afterwards. “We dominated much of the game, but created nothing,” was his taciturn assessment. “We were really poor in the final third of the pitch”.

Pressley was conversely delighted but stressed he was not looking too far up the table. “I’ve set no goals for this young team. I actually think we’ve over-achieved thus far, but it was a terrific result today.”