Paris tribute as Accies thwart Dons
Aberdeen squander big chance to close gap on leaders Celtic
THE door had been opened. All Aberdeen had to do was step through it but, despite taking the earliest of leads yesterday, they stumbled and stuttered against a spirited home side.
After draws for both Celtic and Hearts on Saturday, Derek McInnes’ men squandered the chance to both reclaim second place and, with it, move within five points of the Premiership leaders.
Yesterday’s result took Hamilton above Dundee and into the top six, that artificial construct by which so many teams appear determined to judge their seasons, while leaving the Dons stuck in third.
And it might have been worse for them. But for a lack of Accies accuracy in the box, and a very close decision by referee Willie Collum not to award a penalty for a handball offence that could only have been millimetres away from the box, they would have been sunk.
After losing five of their previous seven fixtures, then, was a point even scant comfort for Aberdeen fans who, just weeks ago, had been dreaming of a campaign to surpass even last season’s league excesses?
Since a swaggering opening run of eight straight victories, their sights haven’t been so much lowered as driven to subterranean levels of expectation.
They surely dared to expect more after a Kenny McLean strike inside the opening four minutes had put them ahead. But a real striker’s goal from veteran poacher Dougie Imrie with just over 20 minutes remaining squared the match.
And Imrie looked to have won a penalty when his cross struck Shay Logan’s arm, only for Collum to award a free-kick right on the line.
‘I thought it was a penalty but I said to the referee I’ll apologise if I’m wrong,’ said Imrie. ‘I need to see it again. He has awarded the free-kick on the line but, if it’s on the line, then it’s a penalty. It was inside the box as far as I’m concerned.
‘Referees have a hard enough job as it is and he had to make the decision there and then. Willie said to me that he will apologise to me if he sees it later and he’s wrong.’
The penalty decision and both goals aside, this was a relatively bloodless affair between two teams struggling for form. Hamilton now haven’t won a game since September.
The travelling hordes who had followed Aberdeen the length and breadth of the country for much of this season weren’t quite out in force for this lunchtime kick-off a long way from home.
Form will also have played a part in the thinning of numbers, of course. But it was impossible to escape the conclusion that, once again, the demands of football’s TV paymasters had impacted on the numbers willing to actually attend a fixture.
A crowd of under 2,500 is a fair reflection of how the public feel about their treatment by a game increasingly followed from afar.
However, with three minutes and 35 seconds on the clock, the Hamilton punters found themselves cursing their team’s inability to deal with a cross into the box — while the travelling fans celebrated a brilliant finish from McLean.
Pouncing on a Niall McGinn delivery that was allowed to bounce, the former St Mirren midfielder thumped the ball in off the bar with a mighty swipe of his left boot.
Northern Ireland international Michael McGovern, in the Hamilton goal, was as helpless as his back four had been hapless in conceding a chance from such little danger.
Accies rallied from the loss of the early opener. A shot from Imrie which was deflected behind — again after Ash Taylor passed the ball straight to the veteran striker — was their most promising moment in a first half high on effort but low on quality.
The Aberdeen front four — plus McLean in support — showed a lot of movement without ever penetrating, although McGovern was called upon to tip another McLean effort wide just before the break.
Jonny Hayes also sent a free header wide after the break, but the Dons looked far from fluent. There was no great shock in Hamilton’s equaliser.
Gramoz Kurtaj was the man who forced the opening, his shot saved by Danny Ward, who looked on in horror as Imrie pounced upon the rebound to score from close range.
And Accies had a big shout for a penalty when, with 13 minutes left, Imrie’s cross hit the arm of Logan. Kurtaj was utterly disbelieving, slapping the artificial turf in despair.
Although a Hayes cross hit the bar in the closing moments, the game rather fizzled out in the end.
There is time, yet, for Aberdeen to ensure that their season doesn’t suffer a similar fate. But they’ll have to start accepting a few invitations to move forward.