Ye Olde Hamiltonian

Three days on from McGowan 's fairy tale diatribe, the comments are flying in thick and fast still. No one is talking about the game as it is still Club Politics with now Ex Director Alistair Duguid pointing out the fallacies of McGowan's Speech To The Nation.

Very common which is why we are where we are.

I felt Rankin gave Airdrie the initiative by moving to one man up front start of the second half as it allowed the ball to move quickly against us. Subs were a bit meh and if you are going to bring Tiehi on,you give him more time and put balls in the box for him. As for Airdrie,they should be looking for the first goal Saturday as our powder puff strikers won't score 3. However,if we score first I would be very confident of getting the job done. All to play for and a big,big performance needed for sure.

The Accies Double-Decker Bus,the Del Boy Reliant Robin,The Cruyff Court,The American Diner, The Bobby Sandsesque Mural...take your pick.

I was right next to what went on and the only shouts I heard were against The Board.

I presume The Commercial Manager will be one of those banned for abusing fans/wanting to batter individual supporters along with Gerry Strain/Martin Milligan aka The Iceland Employee from Burnbank? What a shower of self-serving cants we have running our club.The Players caught in the middle between the continuing war between The Board and the fans. Perfect way to prepare for our biggest game in 20 years against a Club with a United fanbase,Management and Directors all singing from the same hymn sheet.

I've heard from an unnamed source in his organisation that Zengin wants full control at Accies within the next two years. To be fair,he was the one Director trying to get the fans banned for social media comments in January back in the ground.We banned the guys who run The We Are Hamilton Facebook/Twitter(like the Airdrie Board banning the excellent Airdrie Fans TV)because they found out that one Director(let's call him Martin Mulligan lol) had set up a fake account to abuse supporters. Today's nonsensical statement by Allan Maitland(missing in action all season) added to yesterday's by The Commercial Manager wanting to better fans highlights the divide between the fans v the Board. I was part of the Campaign to get us back in the town during our homeless years when over £6million "disappeared" leaving us with £ 650,000 to build a ground.Thus,two Stands and a Gazebo when the original plans were for 4 Stands and a sliding Roof when we got the extra £2million overage money 2 years later from Hamilton West Retail Park.I Airdrie's fantastic attacking football you could say deserve to prevail but from an Accies fans viewpoint, we go down and will go down again and again as McGowan and Associates have run the Club into the ground and we could go out of business. This is the lot who made fans jump through hoops for Cup Final tickets, have banned fans resulting in hundreds of us watching games in local Pubs on dodgy streams a la above and who want the Stadium for "Charity" and other activities. The Football Club comes way behind squirrelling money away for vainglorious projects such as their planned Drugs Rehabilitation Centre in The Away Stand. The last two days by Accies Officials on Social Media have only increased the divide and the atmosphere will be poisonous if Airdrie win easily. Supporttheteam nottheregime is the Accies supporters motto.

Not to worry as our players won't be out bevvying till the Wednesday a la Challenge Cup. Play as we did in that game over two legs and it will be too tight to call but I would be very confident.However,play as we did for 3/4 of the season and it will be all over Wednesday night.

I'm detecting a lot of interest in these ties as folk who have rarely attended I know are going and HAFSWO are running as many buses as can be filled. We had a decent support at Alloa,so quite a few more after yesterday.

To be fair,that was always because the Accies stank out the bottom divisions post war up to the last 15+ years while both Airdrie and Motherwell were getting to Europe and mostly in the top flight.

Saying that if we play as we did in January for that spell of games,I would be very confident against any League One team as were playing well then but changing the formation ruined us for months.One of our subs was a left back coming on as a striker as we only have two fit strikers. If we shut the door at the back,I am confident but refusing to play our first choice Keeper Fulton because he is joining Portsmouth for over £100k is crazy as it would cost more if we go down. Same scenario as letting Andy Ryan join Larne in January as his goals would have kept us up.

Accies were dead men walking, but funnily enough the fans going mental at The Board seemed to galvanise the team as the pressure was all focused on the Owners/Board and not the Manager/Team. We only have two fit strikers and both hadn't scored for months up to today but after we got the goals you could see confidence coming back into the team. There is still an undercurrent of anger at The Board and Airdrie winning the tie easily will bring that back to the surface. Airdrie will start favourites as scoring for fun, but Accies and Play Offs have brought success in the past,so who knows. If we win, we will probably be in the same position next year as have only three players in contract and five of our fantastic under 18's(about to win the League,unbeaten against both Old Firm teams)are also out of contract which Shows how badly we are being run as in our top League days,there were never more than 4-5 out of contract every season.

That will never happen trust me. In my 47 years of support, once once have we been run by Owners with the best interests of the club at heart. Remember,over £6 million "disappeared" from the sale of the old Douglas Park leaving us with two Stands and a Gazebo. Today was weird,Alloa may feel the Keeper should have been off,but I think he went for the ball first. A part-time team down to the bare bones with 10 men were always going to concede eventually, but I never expected four goals in quick succession. At 5-2 we made a few subs and kept possession.Main thing though is confidence returning to a team who have been playing with fear.Guys who couldn't score now have confidence back. Airdrie will be favourites but I said months ago we would win The Play Offs if we end up there,so not changing my opinion even although it is a minority view.

Accies have been dreadful for months,but once those goals went in,you could see the confidence coming back in the team. Guys who couldn't score in Hamilton Palace at quarter to three suddenly were shooting and scoring from all angles-albeit against 10 men.

New Owners,currently being done up I hear.

Peak Accies with no Stadium Bar tomorrow as it is pre-booked for a Holy Communion.Apparently,they arranged the booking without checking Play Off dates.

The rumours that Queens Park can't go up will gather apace watching this half-hearted display.

The Accies fans in the main this season have given our worst team in 30 years tremendous encouragement with very little in return apart from a memorable Cup Final win. Three years ago we were winning at Ibrox,easily dispatching Motherwell,drawing 2-2 at Tynecastle after playing 75 minutes with 10 men etc etc and rarely has a Club witnessed such a staggering and swift decline in such a short period...all preventable. Three home League wins all season-all via penalties, 10 Home League wins in the last 3 seasons and not 1 goal from open play in the last 12 games shows how low they have allowed this ship to sink. Add in a Board of Directors who have always despised the fans,have allowed this club to turn into a shambles on and off the park and blame the fans for our current predicament and not their poor running of the club and you have a cocktail which is toxic. I was there in the bad old homeless days and if we lose out on Saturday the atmosphere will be akin to then and really poisonous.

Be interesting to see George Stanger tonight as I thought he got a raw deal at Accies and any time he did play it was out of position...funnily enough under Brian Rice. I am sure our fans will give Brian Rice a warm reception at both games as he took time to explain to fans on a few occasions of what he was up against in The Boardroom who never backed him 100% like most of our Managers including Alex Neil. Reminds me of meeting ex Player,Captain,Assistant and then Manager Jim Dempsey at a family Funeral two years ago where he told me The Directors were back in his day and still are the problem at Accies for any Manager whether that is interfering with signings or refusing to back a Manager with signings.

Fulton supposedly off to Portsmouth.

The current good Arbroath home support and I applaud them for that, may start to diminish the same way The Accies support slowly ebbed away after constant relegation fights winning a handful of home games a season. The difference though is they have a Board of Directors who support their Club,have the best interests of the club at heart and crucially engage positively with the support.This can carry a club through problems as this season has shown. Meanwhile,The "Owners" at Accies have ruined the best set up since the 1930's after Sir Alex Neil left with their frugality, bad decision making and constant hostility towards the supporters. Now,we are in a scenario where it is only doom and gloom whatever the outcome of The Play Offs. Still,despite the dross on the pitch,I have no fears of the Play Offs.None of the League Two sides are as good as those we have played in recent weeks and we only lost points in those games due to comedy defending at our end. I predicted ages ago we would shit-fest our way to winning any Play Offs and it wouldn't surprise me if we only score 1-2 goals maximum and win both ties accordingly.

There were three buses booked from The Vaults and only two turned up.Bus Number One chucked them all off as someone opened the hatch for fresh air. I was on Bus Number Two and walked off as was not leaving 110+ folk behind.No other buses could be sourced, so we all headed to The Bay Horse which had the game on Firestick. Thank fcuk we were not there as Dundee Arnold Clark Hospitality would not have got off as lightly as they did.

He tried that a few years ago with a Planning Application to build Flats on land adjacent to The Tunnel behind The Main Stand,but South Lanarkshire Council knocked it back. Meanwhile,he spiels about Investors,but it is well known that John Viola tried to buy the Club and a potential deal was agreed until McGowan put a spanner in the works by refusing to sell The Stadium Company. The man is arguably hated more than Watson,Fulston and Stepek who took over £6million out of the Club via dodgy Property deals leaving us with £650,000 to build a ground. Hence why we only have two Stands and have lost a large section of the support from back then and the last few years.

The self same Youth League where Accies are top above Aberdeen and The Old Firm and lost the Semi-Final to Rangers due to our best three players being unavailable- unlike Rangers who drafted three in from their Lowland League side for that game. Meanwhile, what a contrast in build up to this game.Arbroath and players like Bobby Linn(he would start in my team fwiw)encouraging a big and noisy support whereas The Accies Board-in particular McGowan- have spent the last week having digs at the fans culminating in today's attack on the fans in The Hamilton Advertiser with a near full page attack on : " keyboard warriors", folk with banners,boo-boys(completely off the scale this as the fans have backed these duds all season) and the coup de grat of supporters chasing away a potential Investor who was going to put serious investment in the club. All nonsensical as John Viola and partners tried to buy the Club, but pulled out as McGowan refused to relinquish The Stadium Company. There is a lot of anger on Forums/Social Media at the comments from The Owners this week.Putting a tanked up,angry support near The Directors Box and potentially goading Hospitality and other fans is a disaster waiting to happen and as a fan who watched the disaster unfold in the Homeless Years,this has a similar vibe. Back then,the then Owners were attacked and folk arrested after we were dented to The Third Division.I sense similar anger here and with a long journey and drink added to the equation, this could get really ugly.

Accies under 18's still top of the League after last night's thrilling 3-3 draw against Celtic at NDP where they could have won it in injury time but for a misplaced pass in injury time by Ryan One. Young Lewis Morgan is currently keeping Ben Black out the team and looks a prospect as does Gabe Forsyth with two goals last night.