Accies edge Alloa to set up final with Inverness
HAMILTON ACADEMICAL booked their place in the cinch Championship play-off final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle with a 3-2 win over 10-man Alloa Athletic earning Ian Rankin’s side a 5- 4 aggregate victory.
In an action-packed second leg, Alloa’s early pressure paid off when Quinn Coulson finished from close range seven minutes in.
But the Accies were level a little over 10 minutes later when Reghan Tumilty arrived at the back post to score his sixth of the season.
Lewis Smith then put them ahead just before the break with Alloa’s Morgyn Neill sent off for dissent in the aftermath.
Alloa managed to draw level through Conor S a mmon’s 57th-minute goal but had no response after Ahkeem Rose got the hosts’ third of the afternoon 13 minutes from time.
Elsewhere, Billy McKay scored the only goal as Duncan Ferguson’s Inverness Caley Thistle kept their hopes of avoiding relegation from the Championship alive with a slender 1-0 win over Montrose.
McKay struck just before the hour mark of yesterday’s play-off semi-final second leg at the Caledonian Stadium to finally see off the stubborn League One side after a goalless draw on Tuesday.
Montrose’s hopes of staging a late fightback were hampered when Blair Lyons was sent off six minutes from time and Thistle will now face Hamilton in the final.
Lyons thought he had scored in the first half, but his effort was ruled out for offside before Cameron Harper hit a post for the hosts.
McKay broke the deadlock when he turned in following a corner and Thistle held on after Lyons was dismissed following a clash with Morgan Boyes.