Cove Rangers gave the Balmoral Stadium crowd an early Christmas present as late substitute Leighton McIntosh’s quickfire brace ensured a 2-0 win against Hamilton Accies.
It was a close first half, with Accies hitting the post in the opening 10 minutes of the Championship clash, before Cove grew into the game, with their best chance a Fraser Fyvie header.
The home side were the better of the two sides in the second half and created numerous chances for an opener, but just couldn’t find the back of the net.
That was until substitute McIntosh scored two rapid goals – netting with his first touch in the 82nd minute, and claiming his second four minutes later to seal three valuable points.
A close first-half at Balmoral
Hamilton saw most of the ball in the opening stages, which culminated in Andrew Ryan hitting the bar from inside the area, before Cove ultimately cleared their lines.
At the other end, Fyvie went close with Cove’s first chance, as he leapt highest in the box to meet a cross, but his floated header was saved by Accies keeper Ryan Fulton.
Accies tried to hit the home side on the break soon after, but Connor Scully tracked back and stopped the attacking move, as he cut out Andrew Ryan’s through-ball to Andrew Winter.
Cove’s next sight of goal came when skipper Mitch Megginson found Fyvie in the box, and he headed it down to Gerry McDonagh, but his balance was off and hit the shot wide of the post.
After 35 minutes, Cove boss Jim McIntyre was forced into making a change as Charlie Gilmour was still feeling the effects of an early knock. He was replaced by Jamie Masson.
Cove’s Louis Longstaff looked lively, as he linked up well with Max Johnston, who whipped a decent ball into the box which Accies’ Fergus Owens intercepted and chested back to his keeper.
Following that chance, Blair Yule and Mark Reynolds both gave away free-kicks in dangerous positions in Cove’s half, with the former being shown a yellow card, but Hamilton wasted the set-pieces.
Cove push and push for the opener through second-half
Accies had the first chance of the second-half as Ryan saw a curling effort stopped by keeper Stuart McKenzie, who got up quickly to deny Lewis Smith’s attempt on the rebound.
But it was the home side who looked better on the ball, and Megginson would’ve had a clear shot away after some nice play, if it hadn’t of been for a solid defensive block.
Accies were called on to defend again, but did so nervously, as Michael Doyle cleared the ball over his own crossbar when Longstaff sent an inviting cross deep into the box.
It was Longstaff who was at the centre of the action and he would soon find Johnston on the overlap, who sent a perfectly weighted cross into the box to McDonagh, but the Irishman’s header bounced the wrong side of the post.
The ball was barely leaving Accies half about an hour in as Cove kept pressing for the opener, with Yule the next player to ping the ball into the box from the left flank.
Against the run of play, though. Accies managed to work the ball into the Cove box and unleashed the closest effort of the half so far, as McKenzie denied Smith from close range.
A stramash in the box followed from the corner, but McKenzie pulled off another good save, throwing his body in front of the ball, with many players trying to hook it into the net.
And straight down the other end, Cove were inches away from going 1-o up as Fyvie failed to connect with a Megginson cross, which would have only needed the lightest of touches to go over the line.
With 15 minutes left to play, Accies’ Ryan looked offside, but the linesman kept his flag down, allowing the forward to go one-v-one with McKenzie, however, he fluffed his lines and hit his shot into the side-netting.
And with eight minutes left to play and just seconds after coming onto the pitch, McIntosh put Cove 1-0 up as he flicked Masson’s corner into the back of the net.
And the super-sub wasn’t done yet, as he added another in the 86th minute after picking the ball up and driving with it down the pitch, before unleashing a super strike from 20 yards out.
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