D’Acol dedicates his goal to the people of Brazil
THE grief from the air tragedy in Colombia last week involving Brazilian soccer side Chapecoense has touched the world, and Hamilton Accies striker Alex D’Acol offered his condolences, dedicating the goal he scored yesterday to the people of his homeland.
The Brazilian striker struck in the 15th minute to give his side the lead. ‘It is my home country and I hope God helps them find peace,’ he said afterwards. ‘It is so very sad. I dedicate my goal to them.’
Football is put into perspective when such tragedies occur. But there was a need for both sides not to lose this game.
As it was, a draw was not too bad for either of them. It moved Thistle off bottom spot and into 11th place on goal difference. Accies moved up into eighth position.
However, the visitors should be further up the table as they deserved to win this encounter. They equalised in the 61st minute through a right-foot shot from Sean Welsh.
And 12 minutes later they had the ball in the net again when sub Chris Erskine played in Callum Booth and he stroked it home.
Referee Don Robertson, on the advice of one of his assistants, David Doig, ruled it out for offside. The ‘goal’ should have stood, though.
Firhill boss Alan Archibald could not hide his anger at full-time and said: ‘I’ve watched it back and a goal should have been given.
‘I thought the officials had a bad day. I didn’t ask the referee about it, because you’re wasting your time, wasting your breath. They just said it was offside.
‘We should have won but at least we are off the bottom of the league. It’s frustrating but we’ve said to the lads that we need to win these six-pointers because it’s a tight group.’
It was clear from the first whistle that both sides were intent on winning the game. The action ebbed and flowed as they sussed one another out.
Hamilton struck first, though, taking the lead in the 15th minute.
Massimo Donati’s long, hopeful ball ended up in the Thistle penalty box. Liam Lindsay appeared to have the situation under control but he was chased down by D’Acol and that caused him to panic.
The Brazilian took possession of the ball, created an angle to stroke a shot past Partick goalkeeper Tomas Cerny, who made his first start in three months after being sidelined with a foot injury.
Thistle felt the goal should not have stood as there was a foul in the build-up. But referee Robertson waved play on.
Archibald’s men dusted themselves down and should have been level before the interval.
Ade Azeez was clean through in the 38th minute and he opted to lob Gary Woods — but his effort flew a yard over the crossbar.
Then, four minutes later, Kris Doolan’s header rebounded off the keeper’s right-hand post.
Accies striker Rakish Bingham had a chance to make it 2-0 at the start of the second half but he lost his composure at the edge of the penalty area and blasted over. It was a pivotal moment.
The surge towards the home team’s goal quickly resumed. Ryan Edwards forced Woods into a fine save before Thistle were rewarded in the 61st minute when Welsh pounced.
There was hesitancy in the Accies defence and Dan Seaborne’s attempted headed clearance was poor. Welsh took control and coolly placed a right-foot shot past Woods from 12 yards.
That was the ninth time this season Hamilton have thrown away a lead. This one occurred on boss Martin Canning’s 35th birthday and he said: ‘Once again, we have failed to keep hold of a lead, but I don’t think we deserved to win the game.
‘It’s another one we have drawn. That’s something we aren’t doing well enough. We’re expecting to hang on to a 1-0 lead instead of trying to kill off the game. We’ll address that. We take a point from this one and move on.
‘We’re picking up points and moving up the league, so we’re in a better position than when we started but we were in a winning position. I thought a draw was a fair reflection.’