 |
Saturday, 8 August 1998 Hamilton Academicals 1 : Hibernian 2 |
 |
|
|
Saturday, 8 August 1998 Hamilton Academicals 1 : Hibernian 2 |
|
While Hibs were cooling their heels on the previous Saturday, Hamilton Academicals managed to overcome the might of Brechin City on penalties after a 2-2 draw. This qualified the Accies for a home tie with Hibernian in the second round. A 'home’ tie for Accies means one that isn't necessarily on the ground of their opponent. This season, Hamilton are residing in the palatial surroundings of Firhill the ground of Partick Thistle. Mind you after spending the past two seasons at Cliftonhill in Coatbridge, even Brockville or Somerset Park would have seemed palatial by comparison!
Hamilton have taken over from, former tenants, Clyde as the Gypsies of Scottish Football. After selling Douglas Park for housing development, they resided at Firhill for two years until relegation to Division 2 made this too costly. Accies then moved downmarket to the ground of Albion Rovers. Accies won instant promotion back to Division 1, but still felt that the 800 (later increased to 1,200) capacity of Cliftonhill would be adequate.
As it happens Hamilton managed to draw Rangers at home in both the League Cup and the Scottish Cup. In both cases the match was switched to Motherwell. After surviving their first season in Division One, with Motherwell not on offer, Accies decided to return to Firhill. Partick Thistle had by now been relegated again to Division 2 and had fallen on hard times.
Partick Thistle Nil, as they were affectionately, known had long struggled and one commentator suggested that they would continue to struggle in Glasgow unless someone invented a third religion!
Former Partick Chairman Jim Oliver, who was not keen on Accies groundsharing Firhill, was no longer in charge. Partick had been offered the opportunity to become the team of the 'third religion' in Glasgow after a consortium of Moslem businessmen tried to buy the club. Oliver, knocked back the bid and became infamous for his remark 'If anyone thinks we're going to give away a company which we've built up over six years at a personal loss to satisfy the wishes of some Indian with a curry shop they'd better get real'.
Soon after, Partick got into financial difficulties and a proposed take-over by the former Clydebank supremo Jack Steedman fell through. Partick were by now technically insolvent. They embarked on a major cost cutting and cash raising drive to ensure the survival of the club. All saleable assets were let go and after relegation, all but the members of the youth team were released at the end of the season. Hamilton moved back in to Firhill. This provided some much-needed income for the Maryhill club.
Maryhill can be approached via the M8 to Firhill Road and is deep in 'Taggart’ territory. In one episode Taggart was informed that a body had been discovered at Firhill and that murder was suspected. He responded to the effect that 'there is murder at Firhill every second Saturday!’
Firhill is surrounded by tenements, some of which overlook the ground and may afford a good view with a pair of binoculars. The ground lies below the level of the canal basin. This has results in a playing surface liable to flooding, but only when it rains! During the previous spell of Accies tenancy at Firhill, the ground was notorious for a poor playing surface and high incidence of call-offs. It is too soon in the season to know if this problem has been solved.
On arrival at the ground, we were refused admission to the car park that contained only official cars and the Hibs team bus. Apparently, Hamilton were not prepared to pay Partick for the use of the car park so it remained empty and the supporters from Hamilton and Edinburgh were forced to park on the nearby streets.
The ground certainly looked neat with the gleaming new Jackie Husband stand on one side and the refurbished main stand opposite. There remain terraced areas behind each goal which have probably not been used since Partick's relegation from the Premier Division. The main stand is in the style of Archibald Leitch. It was, in fact, designed by David Mills Duncan who was once the chief draftsman for Leitch. It was opened in 1927 and refurbished with new grey cladding and a brick structure used as offices plus changing rooms added to the end of the stand. The stand seats 2,813 seats and is usually split between home and visiting support.
The Jackie Husband stand seats 6,263 and was opened in 1994 at a cost of 2.3 million pounds. With the installation of new floodlights and undersoil heating, this was supposed to protect the status of Partick Thistle as a Premier League club.
As it happened, Partick were relegated following the loss of the play-off against Dundee United. Current Hibs defender Brian Welsh scored an equalizer for the Arabs deep into injury time in the second leg at Tannadice and set United up to win in extra time. The expenditure on the ground proved the downfall of Partick as the debts became unserviceable in the First Division without the money generated by regular 'old firm' visits to Firhill.
For the League Cup-tie with Hibs, only the Jackie Husband Stand was used although there seemed to be some spectators present in the main stand. These were rumoured to be the Accies Directors who try to keep well away from the irate supporters. Giving them a stand to themselves is carrying things rather too far! Hibs were allocated over half the new stand. When the gates were finally opened half an hour before kick-off, the Hibs side of the stand filled up rapidly and seemed at least 85% full. The Hamilton side was not stretched, but the official attendance of 3,083 seemed a thousand or more below the true figure.
The match kicked off in glorious sunshine, a real novelty for 1998. Buoyed by their unexpected win away to Raith Rovers earlier in the week that put them top of the table, Accies really laid into Hibs in the early stages. Hibs managed to withstand the onslaught and hit back to take the lead when Justin Skinner scored from close range. Hibs looked in command for the rest of the first half but lost their way in the second half and allowed an equalizer. Just when it seemed that Hibs faced extra time and possibly penalties, substitute Stuart Lovell scored another last minute winner for Hibs.
This continued a run of last minute goals that started last May when Rougier scored a last minute penalty equalizer at St. Johnstone. Rougier repeated with another last minute penalty to draw at home with Aberdeen and then Welsh and Crawford scored last minute goals to draw at Dunfermline and Kilmarnock respectively. That made six last minute goals in eleven successive matches. More importantly it was Hibs second away win in five days after going nearly two years with only a cup win at Aberdeen (on penalties) achieved away from Easter Road.