Why Me?!

Confessions of an Edinburgh Clyde Supporter (10/3/2007: Hamilton at Broadwood)

I definitely enjoyed that!! There was something in the air when me and the driver (Dad) arrived at Fortress Broadwood on Saturday. The car park was maybe slightly busier than usual and it just seemed like there was a bit of a big game atmosphere around the place.

As we took our customary position in the lounge and enjoyed the general chatter, the feeling that today was going to be a good day only grew. As I avoided watching Scotland attempt to play Rugby by burying myself in the match day programme, a strange feeling washed over me, as I looked around the room, I could tell others were feeling it to: I expected us to win today!! In fact, I was almost relaxed. A quick look at the Hamilton team sheet quickly brought those standard Saturday butterflies back to the belly however.

By 15:13 though, any lingering pre-match doubts had been swiftly removed. In a quite incredible first 15 minutes not only had the customary Gary Arbuckle goal put us one goal ahead, the Hamilton right back had managed to get himself sent off for what the sports writers might call “a reckless lunge.”

As half-time approached the game was pretty much finished to be honest. Steven Masterton had scored another ridiculous goal; most free-kicks in a season looks like a good bet for next year. Added to the fact that esteemed Hamilton manager Billy Reid had attempted a world record amount of formations and changed 3 of his personnel, then the half-time break was as relaxing as our 3 previous victories.

The second half was merely a case of finishing the game and enjoying the Hamilton bench and their interpretation of touchline gymnastics. However, a Dougie Imrie goal reminded us all that a game was still being played out on our spectacularly sandy pitch! A goal for Dougie was great revenge for the nonsense that has followed him since ‘that’ game at Douglas Park. It is worth mentioning that his goal came after a number of attempts, so maybe he wanted it as much as the rest of us!!

Other features of the game were another sterling performance from a midfield that is now playing to the standard we became accustomed to last year. The introduction of Ryan McCann in particular has given Bryson much more freedom and this is being seen in performance. A slight change in formation, the introduction of Brian Gilmour – who is pretty much just Karim Kerkar Mk.II (he also is unable to shoot) – and Joe Miller has got us back on track brilliantly. Credit to him for that.

Right, I’m away to work out if it’s possible for us to win the league at Gretna on the second last day of the season!!