MOTHERWELL 4 HAMILTON ACCIES 0
THERE is a history of low levels of light already this season in derbies between Motherwell and Hamilton Academical.
On the last meeting of the sides on January 1, a dodgy floodlight caused a large chunk of the New Douglas Park pitch to be plunged into darkness throughout the match.
It was a 5-0 defeat that already had Well fans cowering in the shadows.
It is, therefore, fitting that their next meeting took place on the date the nation grinded to a halt to peer through a thick, cloudy sky hunting for a solar eclipse like Bergerac trying to find traces of beef in his Bovril.
Unlike the meeting on New Year’s Day, however, it was Motherwell that would go from darkness into the light as Hamilton stayed ominously in the shadows.
Heading into the match just a point off SPFL Premiership bottom side St Mirren, Ian Baraclough’s team finally clicked in a Lanarkshire derby with a 4-0 win to lift the gloom of relegation which has hovered above Fir Park for months. Even if just partially.
It was a stunning performance from the home side at Fir Park, especially in the second-half where the ball was rarely out of the visitors’ half.
Going in at half-time somehow not ahead after Lionel Ainsworth and Lee Irwin had both spurned chances, it took Well just five minutes after the interval to establish a two-goal lead.
Two sublime finishes from Ainsworth underscored their superiority before John Sutton added a late third.
Their first was thing of beauty. A quick free-kick from Keith Lasley 30 yards out saw the ball shuffled to Ainsworth on his right. The winger took one touch to steady himself before rifling a stunning shot high across goal and into the top corner.
The former Shrewsbury Town man wasn’t finished. Just two minutes later Marvin Johnson broke down the right to deliver a dangerous ball across the face of goal. Lee Irwin missed it, only for Ainsworth to slam home at the back post.
HAMILTON’S night was to get even worse on 64 minutes as Darren Lyon saw red for a horrific challenge on Johnson.
However, Motherwell were only just getting started.
Despite Ainsworth going agonisingly close to a hat-trick after a lung-bursting run and shot, he would soon turn provider with 10 minutes left to play as his delicately-lofted cross was thundered home off the head of substitute Sutton.
Three minutes later and the rout – the same result Accies recorded over Well here back in September – was complete.
A clumsy and idiotic challenge on Irwin by Ziggy Gor- don saw Callum Murray point to the spot. The ball was handed to Sutton who stepped up to send Michael McGovern the wrong way with a calm finish.
From there on Motherwell were on easy street as Hamilton’s winless run of games under Canning stretched to 11.
The closest a disjointed Hamilton came to scoring throughout the night was a stunning Imrie volley which struck the post midway through the first half and a trundling Nigel Hasselbaink shot midway through the second half.
It was a match many around Fir Park knew their team could not afford to lose, and it never looked likely from the second Ainsworth started a thrashing that went someway to putting the New Year’s Day demons to bed.
A bad moon continues to rise over Hamilton. A new dawn threatens to break at Motherwell.