Templeton keeps his cool to collect for Accies in basement battle
DAVID TEMPLETON displayed a composure which was rarely in evidence at the SuperSeal Stadium yesterday when, in the 91st minute, he took his time — and a touch — before firing the ball into the net from close range after Tomas Cerny could only parry a shot from Antonio Rojano.
The former Hearts and Rangers winger was the calmest man on the pitch as he reached the rebound. The play seemed to go into slow motion as he made sure he had the ball under control before passing it into the net.
It brought to a halt a run of five consecutive defeats for Hamilton and lifted them two points clear of Partick, who now occupy the relegation play-off position, and Accies boss Martin Canning heaped praise on the match-winner.
‘Temps didn’t panic when the ball came to him, although I was wanting him to snatch at it,’ admitted Canning. ‘I was shouting: “Shoot!”. A more inexperienced player would have snatched at it and missed but he had the composure. He took his time and it was a good finish.
‘Lewis Ferguson also did magnificently well, with a great turn and pass for Antonio — it was the one moment of real quality for us in the match. We’ve lost late goals a few times this season, so it’s nice to be on the other end of that for a change.’
The first goal in Premiership fixtures is usually crucial and never more so than in relegation battles such as this.
The home support were understandably frustrated, then, when Hamilton again conceded cheaply here when Georgios Sarris pulled back Danny Devine at a corner.
Conor Sammon, the striker on loan to Thistle from Hearts, stepped up to beat Gary Woods low to his right from the resulting penalty for his eighth goal in as many games.
Accies equalised in their next attack, with Argentine Rojano heading home from Dougie Imrie’s corner.
An offside flag prevented Thistle striker Kris Doolan from celebrating his 100th league goal for the club after he had headed Blair Spittal’s free-kick beyond Woods.
Hamilton have enjoyed precious little good fortune of late and they lost Shaun Want
and Alex Gogic to injury before the interval.
There were appeals for a penalty for handball against Thistle’s Niall Keown but it seemed to be a case of ball to man rather than the other way around. Referee Nick Walsh was unimpressed by the claims.
Miles Storey replaced goalhero Sammon at the start of the second half but the first action came when Hamilton midfielder Ferguson was deservedly shown a yellow card after diving in an attempt to earn a penalty.
Accies substitute Ross Jenkins also had his name taken when he pulled Spittal’s shirt as the Thistle man burst past him.
The best move of the game came in the 75th minute when Ryan Edwards and Chris Erskine combined to tee up Callum Booth, whose low shot was gathered by Woods at the second attempt.
Otherwise, both teams were content to hit speculative long balls and attempt to feed off the scraps, a tactic which Accies’ artificial surface seems to encourage.
Consequently, as a spectacle — and in spite of the early goals — this was a non-starter.
Not that the jubilant home fans cared when Templeton snatched that late, late winner. Even then, there was still time for Woods to make up for his horrific blunder against Rangers the previous weekend by clawing out a powerful header from Erskine in the dying seconds.
Thistle boss Alan Archibald, whose side had lost against Dundee to a last-minute goal seven days earlier, was inconsolable afterwards.
‘It’s a sickener for that to happen two weeks in a row,’ he said. ‘We’ve not learned from it. We had three centre-halves on the pitch and enough lads who know how to organize and should have enough nous about them to see the game out and take the point.’