Ton slip up as Tidser sees red

Allan Moore's men went ahead after quarter of an hour when David O'Brien got on the end of a David Graham cross to head his side into the lead.

And after Accies lost their only experienced outfield players, defender Martin Canning went off injured while skipper Alex Neil was dismissed in first-half stoppage time, Ton should have run out comfortable victors.

However, a lackadaisical second-half approach saw the visitors fail to press home their one-man advantage, for which they suffered the consequences when Ali Crawford scored to snatch a point nine minutes from time.

The misery was compounded minutes later when stand-in captain Michael Tidser was foolishly sent off for mouthing off at referee Crawford Allan.

The afternoon had started off in such positive fashion too. The travelling support was buoyed by the news that their side included three surprise inclusions.

Simon Mensing, who trained with the club in pre-season and featured in a summer friendly against Rapid Bucharest, was listed as a trialist and took up a place in central defence.

Left-back Willie Dyer returned to the starting line-up just over a fortnight after the announcement that an ankle-ligament injury would rule him out for between four and six weeks.

Last but certainly not least, there was a place on the bench for Fouad Bachirou, who the Tele exclusively revealed had re-signed with the club on our website on Friday night.

Meanwhile, the absences of Mark McLaughlin, due to suspension, and Kevin Rutkiewicz, who picked up an injury, which requires an operation, against Queen of the South in midweek, forced Moore to reorganise his team.

Craig Reid was restored to central defence after a run in midfield, where he was replaced by Tony Wallace, the former Dumbarton man's place on the right taken, in turn, by Graham.

The 4-5-1 formation, however, remained the same. Moore, though, rails at the suggestion that he sets up in this way and insists his side are sent out in a 4-3-3.

The differences between the two are subtle, and in the early stages it certainly looked like the Ton were indeed playing the more attacking variation.

Wingers O'Brien and Graham were pushed right up beside Peter Weatherson and appeared to be absolved of any defensive responsibility whatsoever.

But it was the hosts who made the livelier start going forward. Jon McShane saw a deflected head-flick from a Crawford corner graze the crossbar on its way over in the third minute.

Jon Routledge then curled a left-foot shot towards the top corner from distance, but for all the effort was well directed, it lacked power and Derek Gaston made a comfortable catch.

After weathering that early storm, the visitors' front three began to come to the fore. Graham, pushed high up on the right, collected a Weatherson flick-on from a Dyer cross and drilled at goal.

But ex-Morton goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert - the third former Cappielow stopper to play against the club in five outings this season - got down to make a smart stop.

The advanced positioning of the widemen was perfectly illustrated when Morton opened the scoring on 15 minutes.

Graham picked up the ball just inside the right-hand side of the box, twisted and turned to outfox Accies left-back Stephen Hendrie before clipping a fantastic cross to the far post.

On the opposite side, O'Brien popped up unnoticed and met his counterpart's pinpoint cross with a diving header to give his side the lead.

The hosts' situation went from bad to worse on 22 minutes when veteran defender Canning hobbled off injured to be replaced by Ziggy Gordon.

The change left Accies with a defence comprised of four teenagers: Conner McGlinchey, 19; Gordon, 19; Michael Devlin, 18, and Hendrie, 17, while the team's average age was now just 21 years old.

Morton had taken control at this point in any case and began playing the game at their own pace as Reid and Mensing stroked the ball about the back, to the home crowd's frustration.

The fans sat in the main stand began hurling abuse at their team, with manager Billy Reid the object of their sharp invective.

Morton, on the other hand, were comfortable. Mensing and Reid were easily coping with everything Accies had to offer.

But it was at this stage that O'Brien and Graham seemed to be, by natural instinct, dropping deeper, into alignment with the midfield, rather than maintaining the more adventurous positioning of the opening 20 minutes.

The conservative mindset would ultimately prove damaging but would have been irrelevant had Weatherson converted a chance presented to him on a platter by the opposition.

Young centre-back Devlin was unaware that the Englishman was retreating from an offside position and turned and passed to his goalkeeper.

Weatherson nipped in ahead of former team-mate Cuthbert, expertly rounding him in the process before sweeping a left-foot shot towards goal.

The finish lacked power and allowed Devlin to get back to hook the ball to safety just as it was about to cross the line.

The let-off should have been the wake-up call Hamilton needed. Yet they continued to hit the self-destruct button.

After losing Canning, captain Neil was needed to guide his young team-mates through a testing encounter. He instead left them in the lurch by getting himself sent off deep into first-half injury time.

Having picked up a caution in the 34th minute, he unnecessarily lunged in on Graham deep in the Morton half and referee Allan flashed the inevitable second yellow followed by a red, leaving Accies in a seemingly irretrievable situation.

The dismissal forced Reid to go 4-4-1, with two banks of four given the remit of defending deep and aiming to hit lone targetman McShane with long balls and feed off the seconds.

The approach was aided when Morton centre-back Reid was forced off five minutes into the second half with a severely bruised foot to be replaced there by full-back Scott Taggart.

Despite playing young defender Thomas O'Ware in the centre of defence throughout pre-season, Moore elected to put him to right-back and bring Taggart in one.

Whereas Morton had struggled to string a few passes together in Tuesday's cup game against Queens, they dominated possession in the second half on Saturday.

Tidser, in particular, was orchestrating proceedings, but while he was certainly pulling the strings, most of the play was occurring in front of Hamilton.

Ton were pedestrian, playing at walking pace, and not nearly penetrative enough. They had the look of a team that thought they had the game won.

At the other end, Hamilton's desperate hit-and-hope approach almost paid off in 55 minutes when Crawford was sent belting clear in behind and smashed towards goal.

But he only succeeded in blasting straight at Gaston, who blocked with his chest and caught at the second attempt.

The same move caused disarray four minutes later, with 6ft 1in Mensing surprisingly struggling under the weight of the aerial barrage.

McShane profited from a mix up between Mensing and Gaston and rolled back to Louis Longridge, who curled narrowly over the top from the edge of the box.

On the occasions in which Ton did find a way through they found their path to goal blocked by Cuthbert.

O'Brien was, invariably, the man who provided Ton with the cutting edge which was, in the main, sorely missing in the second period.

Just after the hour, he turned McGlinchey inside out before crossing to the near post, where Graham's outrageous flick was crucially blocked by Hendrie.

With 15 minutes left, O'Ware's deep cross from the right found O'Brien lurking at the far post. He took a touch and thundered a shot towards the near post, but Cuthbert was equal to the effort.

The save came hot on the heels of another top-class stop, at which he sprung to his left to push a fantastic 30-yard Tidser drive over the top.

For a side that had a one-man advantage against what was essentially a team of kids, Ton were not as ruthless as they should have been and were duly punished nine minutes from the end.

Several botched attempts to clear inside the box eventually ended with the ball breaking to Crawford, who slammed a low shot past Gaston to salvage an unexpected point.

Former Accies man Mensing was not prepared to settle for a point, though, and almost restored Morton's lead late on with a diving header which fizzed narrowly over and a speculative long-range effort.

But it wasn't enough and salt was rubbed in the wounds when skipper Tidser was shown a straight red card for dissent after whistler Allan refused to award a free kick for a challenge on Graham.