Accie lose 2-0 to St Johnstone

Feb 3 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

A YOUNG Hamilton Accies passed up an opportunity to climb off the foot of the SPL table – at least for 24 hours – as St Johnstone ran riot at McDiarmid Park on Tuesday.

Young striker Steven May bagged a double for the Perth side and in truth could have scored a few more on a miserable night for Accies, who barely threatened Peter Enckelman’s goal.

Hamilton arrived in Perth with a few problems. Simon Mensing was free from suspension but illness deprived Accies of his services, Mark McLaughlin was still nursing a whiplash injury sustained against Killie on Saturday and David Elebert broke down during the pre-match warm-up.

That meant a debut for 17-year-old defender Ziggy Gordon, while James Chambers and Mark Carrington were handed their first starts in midfield, with the latter having signed that morning.

St Johnstone got off to the best possible start by grabbing the opener after just four minutes.

Chris Millar sent Collin Samuel down the right and he held off Andy Graham before his cut-back found May in acres of space, who simply sidefooted into the net from eight yards.

May could have doubled his and Saints’ lead in 22 minutes when he pounced on a poor clearance but fired well wide from inside the area.

A minute later Accies registered their first chance of the match when Jim McAlister went on a run before blasting a low shot towards the bottom left corner, but Enckelman gathered ahead of lurking Mickael Antoine-Curier.

Saints went close in 43 minutes when May sent new signing Arvydas Novikovas through on the left but a brilliant tackle from Gordon cleared the danger.

May probably should have scored a second on the stroke of half-time when sent through by Samuel, but his low shot was well blocked by Tomas Cerny.

Accies were caught napping seconds into the second half when a great through ball found May in a suspiciously offside-looking position on the right, but his angled shot was saved well by Cerny.

However, the hammer blow was dealt in 47 minutes when sub Alan Maybury drove in from the right, his shot was blocked and hurtled into the box. As defenders dozed May nipped in ahead of them to flick the ball over Cerny and in with the outside of his right boot.

That effectively signalled ‘game over’ and it could have been worse in 54 minutes as Dave Mackay’s cross from the right picked out Liam Craig, who should have done better than head past the far post.

Accies boss Billy Reid threw on Aaron Wildig and debutants Tom Elliott and Jon Routledge, hooking Carrington, Chambers and Damian Casalinuovo in 57 minutes in a bid to turn the game around.

Accies carved out their best chance of the game 10 minutes later when Martin Canning’s free-kick was headed on by Wildig to Antoine-Curier, but his shot was well blocked by Steven Anderson.

Saints went close again in 68 minutes when Craig’s corner from the left was nodded towards the near post by Michael Duberry, where Samuel blasted towards goal, but David Buchanan was on hand to clear off the line.

Gordon saw a 25-yard effort well saved by Enckelman and Graham had a header from a Dougie Imrie corner cleared off the line as Accies tried desperately to grab a lifeline.

Last chance of the match fell to Mackay, whose 19-yard free-kick flew over with Cerny scrambling.