Hamilton......1 Partick.......1
CLIFTONHILL is quite a place.
A visit to the old Coatbridge ground is akin to meandering into a poorly-tended museum, and it has a stand which appears to have almost as many metal support pillars to obstruct one's view as inhabitants.
In the terracings behind each goal is a plethora of fauna and flora that would keep an army of botanists entertained forever.
However, what Cliftonhill also has is Hamilton Accies as lodgers, and if the surroundings are a little less than eye-catching, there is much to appreciate when the men in red-and-white shirts start kicking the ball around.
They entertained Partick
Thistle at the weekend and for the opening 45, one was left with a feeling of pity for the Glasgow team as their opponents sent the ball zooming around the field.
The interval beckoned with Accies 1-0 up - a goal from Steve McCormick - and cruising. However, at the break, Thistle manager John McVeigh convinced his men that it would be in their best interest to display a higher level of commitment, and by the time referee Mike McCurry called a halt, substitute Alex Martin had equalised and everyone was happy.
Well, not everyone, football managers are seldom seen to be happy.
Sandy Clark, in command at Hamilton, claimed that if his team were three goals to the good at half-time, justice would seem to have been done.
The accuracy of such a pronouncement may be quibbled at by some, but Clark was justly chuffed at the skill shown by his men. ''They are a young squad with much to learn,'' he said. ''But they showed good spirit and will have learned from the experience.''
Experience, in a collective sense, is non-existent within the Thistle ranks, so with this in mind having scooped up a point - and following such a searching opening - McVeigh looked content with the outcome.
''Up to half-time we were a shambles,'' he said. ''But I was pleased with them after that and thought that we should have won.''
On the second-half showing. perhaps Thistle could be rising again, and about time for a club of their standing. While for Accies there will be few teams in the first division who will cherish a visit to Cliftonhill, and not just because of the surroundings.
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