BRING ON UNITED
Accies hero Crawford insists Play-off rivals are there for the taking
ALI CRAWFORD last night vowed Hamilton Accies will show their Premiership class to consign Dundee United to another season in the second tier.
Crawford struck the final goal in Hamilton’s 4-0 rout of United’s city rivals Dundee yesterday, a result that condemned Inverness Caledonian Thistle to automatic relegation.
Having belatedly tapped into some form, the midfielder believes Accies are ready to carry their momentum into the two-legged final against opponents already four games deep into a knock-out schedule that has seen them fend off Morton and Falkirk.
‘I didn’t watch the United v Falkirk games, the gaffer was there, but if we play the way we have done in the last couple of matches, I think we have a decent chance,’ said Crawford.
‘They’ve played four games already, tough games that have gone to the wire, so we have a massive advantage. If we play the way we did today, we’ll have no problems.
‘As a Premiership team, you’re always going to have a stronger squad. They are where they are — if they were strong enough they would still be in the Premiership.
‘If we go up there and get a positive result we can hopefully come back here next Sunday and finish the job.’
Hamilton took a grip of the game when Rakish Bingham bundled home the first goal midway through the first half before Ioannis Skondras rifled a
A STRESS-FREE day saw Hamilton brush instant relegation off the agenda — but the real fight is yet to come against a Dundee United team with substantially more to play for.
Martin Canning’s players rose superbly to the challenge of bettering Inverness Caley Thistle’s result to secure a Play-off final tie against United, who will surely not put up as feckless a performance as that served up by their near neighbours.
The left-field appointment that saw Neil McCann hauled from the television studio and into the Dundee dugout resulted in a brief bounce in form sufficient to keep the Dens Park men safe from the drop.
However, this showing was, if anything, worse than the fare being served up before his predecessor Paul Hartley was sacked last month.
Hamilton were clinical and their performance was illuminated by a stunning finish from Greek full-back Ioannis Skondras and some clever old-fashioned wing trickery from David Templeton, the forgotten man of Scottish football.
Only for a short while did the outcome look uncertain. Nerves surely accounted for Scott McMann’s poor infield ball, a piece of wayward play from the Accies defender that ought to have cost his team the opening goal.
Dundee’s striker Faissal El Bakhtaoui cushioned the ball into the path of Paul McGowan, who belted his shot straight at goalkeeper Remi Matthews.
It was a poor miss but it is to Hamilton’s credit that they reacted to that windfall of good fortune by scoring twice within two minutes.
The first was scrappy, a meat-anddrink corner from Ali Crawford finding Scott Bain in a tangle as he jumped with Mikey Devlin. The Dundee keeper got his hands to the ball and there was some debate as to whether he could claim to be in control as the Accies defender made contact.
Rakish Bingham reacted to his team-mate’s flick to bundle the ball home from close range.
‘I thought it was a free-kick because I thought Bain had the ball in his hands,’ said McCann afterwards of referee Crawford Allan’s decision to allow the goal before proceeding to suggest that the official may later have agreed with his view. In all likelihood, the award of a foul would have made no difference.
Hamilton’s second was a strike of genuine quality. Skondras has shown no hint of goalscoring prowess in his four months at Accies, but here he finished like a professional, rattling a half-volley in off the crossbar as he advanced on to a flick just inside the Dundee penalty box.
With literally nothing to lose, McCann changed his shape by withdrawing Nick Ross in favour of winger Craig Wighton and there was a complication for Canning as Devlin went down hurt and had to be replaced by Massimo Donati.
A knee scan will determine whether the centre-back is fit to face United.
Templeton was starting a game for the first time since featuring for Rangers in a League Cup tie against Peterhead in August 2015, and he nearly followed up his goalscoring cameo at Ross County on Tuesday night with a wonderful solo goal.
Pouncing on a loose ball, the former Hearts winger jinked past three challenges before dinking a shot with the outside of his right boot towards the far corner. Bain atoned for his earlier aberration by pulling off the save.
A third goal was always going to be needed to stave off the Accies jitters, which returned early in the second half as McMann again looked unsteady.
Bingham was forced to clear off his line from a Dundee corner and then Henrik Ojamaa — a half-time substitute for the invisible Marcus Haber — shunted a shot wide.
It was Templeton who provided the inspirations, showing devastatingly quick feet to pirouette and turn away from Cammy Kerr and Kostadin Gadzhalov before being bundled over by McGowan. Dougie Imrie took the penalty and scored.
‘David was excellent,’ said Canning. ‘You know he has the quality but I was conscious of the fact he has not played for 21 months and had not done a lot of training either.
‘He had a couple of moments of magic today. The penalty was a big moment because no matter how comfortable you are in the game, if they score it’s a different game.’
Templeton was withdrawn to a standing ovation and then McCann — perhaps trying to spark a reaction from his players — started squabbling with virtually anyone in sight, be they fourth official Mat Northcroft or Imrie.
The ploy did not work. Dundee conceded a fourth when Crawford took advantage of Danny Redmond’s set-up play to slot the ball past Bain.
‘We put in a similar performance against Ross County but the difference is that today the breaks didn’t go against us,’ said Canning. ‘Everything went as it should have done.’