by Red and white hoops » Mon May 22, 2023 10:06 pm
I’ve hung back a wee bit on posting about the game on Saturday. Genuinely it was just too raw. Up there with the lowest I’ve felt as an Accies fan. I’ve taken my time, tried to process it a bit so here goes. Apologies for the long post.
Three weeks ago I thought it was all over already. I’d resigned myself to the inevitable. Then, not by our doing, we get a lifeline on the last day of the season. Then we get lucky again against Alloa when they go a man down and we are eventually able to take advantage and get through the tie.
All of a sudden there is confidence building that there are two ‘one off’ games and we can maybe just pull off the greatest of great escapes.
First leg doesn’t go our way but we don’t get thumped and we are still in the tie.
Then to Saturday evening. It wasn’t the greatest of games but a good bit of play and good finish from Connor Smith takes us level before Teihei gets us in front with only ten minutes to go. Just see this game out I’m thinking. Just make sure the ball is in their half, waste time at every corner and throw. Just keep the ball away from their players and away from our goal. Teihei has another great chance to wrap the game up. I still haven’t been able to watch it back but a chance that looked easier than the one he scored at the time. A striker puts that in and the games done but we haven’t had a striker all season. Then bang on ninety minutes we lose yet another late goal.
Our season summed up in ten minutes. Unable to score enough goals and conceding late goals.
Make no mistake saturdays game didn’t relegate us. A season of poor performances, bad decisions at all levels, ineptitude, unprofessionalism and more is what has relegated us.
Now, there is the makings of a decent side in there. Players like Ryan Fulton, Dylan McGowan, Dan O’Reilly, Scott Martin, Andy Ryan (until January) Reghan Tumilty, are good championship level players. Then we have three players on loan from the English premiership and one from the English championship. We have Connor Smith on loan from our own top flight. On paper they should all be very good championship level players. Add in the likes of Fergus Owens, Marley Redfern, Ryan One, Lewis Smith, Matt Shiels, Andy Winter and Lewis Spence. Add in a decent, proven goal scorer to that group and we should have been looking to finish mid table at very worst.
Set up correctly, played in natural positions, trained correctly and motivated correctly I see no reason why we couldn’t have had a far more successful season.
I write all this on Monday night at just about ten o’clock. More than forty eight hours since the end of the game. Apart from the usual post match interview from John Rankin and a post from Gerry Strain on LinkedIn that the majority wouldn’t have seen unless posted here, I wouldn’t have, there has been nothing from the club. Nothing from our CEO, chairman, vice chairman, manager or anyone else at the club. We travel all over the country, giving up our own time, family time, overtime shifts etc. We do this on Friday nights, Tuesday nights as well as Saturday afternoons and sometimes near enough the full day. We spend money a lot of us actually can’t afford/ justify following our team. Small in numbers we may be but our passion and love for our club is as strong as any other club in the world. Me and many others want to know where we stand. We want an apology. We want to know if this season has been acceptable to those in charge. We want to know the plan going forward from now. We want to know if we are going to be watching a bunch of kids getting bullied in league 1 next season. Most of all we want to know about the long term future of our club.
From top to bottom the club is a shambles at the moment. What happens and who comes and goes throughout the club this summer is going to be massive and show the clubs ambition one way or the other going forward.