Friday 16th November, 2012 at 9:09pm
“Sometimes you don’t see these things coming”.
So said assistant manager Simon Donnelly after last night’s bitterly disappointing 1-0 defeat to Hamilton Accies.
Simon continued;
“After last week we came into the game with plenty of confidence. It’s a tough place for us to come though and we find it difficult to get results here. I’ve just spoken to the players and we can’t question their attitude or their fight. Even with ten men I thought that we were the better team. Second half we had waves of attacks but maybe without that last wee bit of quality or composure. There were plenty of balls going into the box, we were just looking for someone to get on the end of them. Tonight it just wasn’t to be. I said that in the dugout with about five minutes to go after another skirmish inside their box, I said that this was one of those nights when it wasn’t going to happen for us. We though Stephen O’Donnell was going to set to score and his effort must have come off someone as we were awarded the corner. It’s about that bit of composure again. If we had had it in the final third we might on another night have got the goal that got us back into the game.”
Not for the first time we encountered a side, at home, who were content to sit in for long periods.
“The players are disappointed but it is a compliment to us that teams are setting themselves up like that at home. I thought that we looked like the home side out there, trying to play the right way and attacking especially in the second half. We just need to move on.”
There were a couple of controversial incidents during the game. One in the first half when it was felt that Kris Doolan had been impeded in the Hamilton box, and one in the second half when Paul Paton was sent off. Simon was able to give us his, considered, thoughts on those two incidents.
“Kris Doolan feels that he was pushed but we didn’t get the penalty. We spoke to Kris at half-time and he is adamant that it was a penalty. As for the red card, I’m not convinced that it is a red card offence. It could be argued that he’s left the ground. There was a shoulder, then he’s gone into the tackle, as I said, I’m not convinced that it was a red card. It was actually the linesman nearest us that was advising the referee on the decision.”
Paul’s red card will almost certainly mean a two game suspension for a player who has had a major impact on our excellent start to the season.
Said Simon;
“Paul has been great for us this season but again that’s an opportunity for someone to come in now. It’s something that we will just need to deal with. We did last week against Dunfermline when we were without three players you would have considered as starters and went out and got the result. The players that came in did a great job and now it will be someone else’s chance to come in and do the same.”
Thoughts are now on next week’s game with Livingston.
“Tonight’s result is a sore one because we wanted to keep the run going. The sign of a team that wants to go on and challenge at the top is one that can bounce back. They did that after the last set back and they’ll need to do it again. The players have been great this season and we can’t criticise any with the way that we have started the season.”
