Hamilton Crushed At Home On Opening Day Of The Season
NEW DOUGLAS STADIUM
NEW DOUGLAS STADIUM
(THE HOPECBD STADIUM)
NEW DOUGLAS PARK (HopeCBD Stadium)
The HopeCBD Stadium was opened in 2001 and is not far from the site of their former Douglas Park ground from which they left in 1994 (the club ground shared in the intervening years). Alas, nothing remains of the old ground to be seen, in fact, the site is now occupied by a Sainsburys supermarket.
The ground is largely comprised of two fair sized stands at one side and at one end of the ground. Both are covered and all seated. They are unusual, in terms of modern stands, in that they are both raised above pitch level, which means that spectators have to climb a set of stairs, to reach the seated area. These have been supplemented by a small covered temporary stand on the East side of the ground. This area has a capacity of 700 seats. There are also four striking floodlight pylons in each corner of the ground. During 2013 the Club installed a 3G artificial playing surface. Away fans are normally housed in the North (Spice Of Life) Stand where the view of the action is good. In addition the temporary East Stand can also be made available. The views from this area are not great as there is a row of supporting pillars running across the front of it. There is plenty of legroom in the North Stand, but wrap up well in winter as being as the ground is largely open, the wind blows right through it. The ground was known as New Douglas Park, but in 2018 was renamed the HopeCBD Stadium in a corporate sponsorship deal.
GROUND LAYOUT
A MAIN STAND
B NORTH STAND (AWAY)
C TEMPORARY STAND
This is like a re-visit for me for I came up here on the 27th of December to see the Accies play Kilmarnock but with all the cold weather we were having at the time the game was called off a hour before kick off through a frozen pitch. It was a bit of a bummer in more ways than one as it took us 8 hours to get to Hamilton because of the weather and the large amount of people who were travelling to and from Scotland over the Christmas holidays and, of course, Cross Country trains were in the midst of industrial action and cancelling trains right left and centre.
HEARTS Have a good record here at HopeCBD out of their last ten visits they have won 5, losing 3 and drawing 2. Last season they won both league games here 0-3 and 1-2 finishing 4 places above Accies in sixth place 16 points clear of Hamilton in tenth.
Manager Craig Levein has strengthened his team during closed season adding
HAMILTON ACADEMICAL ... 1 HEARTS ... 4
A nice warm, sunny afternoon just the thing to bring out some decent football and the game started to that effect with Hamilton looking the most likely and indeed they took a justifiable lead after 17 minutes, Aaron Hughes hesitated in front of his own goal and allowed Mikel Miller to stab home the ball from ten yards.
But that was as good as it got for the Accies for three minutes later Hearts were level, Christophe Berra head a header turned onto the crossbar by Accies keeper Gary Woods only for the corresponding corner taken by Steven Naismith causing havoc in the Hamilton six yard area and resulting with a looping header from Peter Haring to find the back of the net.
The team from Edinburgh had responded well to going a goal down and should have taken the lead before the break Callum Morrison and Naismith both coming close but the home side managed to stay with Hearts until half time.
In the second period though Hamilton's frailties showed in the light of some wonderful attacking play from Hearts and you could see the home side starting to collapse under some intense pressure. It took only four minutes for the visitors to take the lead and turn things around, Naismith was making headway through the Hamilton defence in the eighteen yard area only for Alex Penny to bring him down from behind with a clumsy challenge. The Norwich loanee took the spot kick himself leaving Woods no chance after he'd guessed the right way but the ball was struck superbly into the left hand corner of the net.
Haring added another for his brace in the 58th minute with a beautifully taken side footed shot that left Woods with no chance. The Hearts fans who filled the North stand and the temporary stand were in raptures while the home support were starting to find the exits.
Things got worse for Hamilton when in the 62nd minute Steven MacLean hammered the final nail into the Accies coffin with a wonderful curling shot from the left which found the far side roof of the Hamilton net and extending Hearts marvellous record at Hamilton in fine fashion.
Accies have to come back quick from this defeat for last season Ross County found themselves bottom of the league from the start and couldn't manage to stop their relegation from the top flight for at the end the season will claim it's victim and from what I've saw today my money's on the team in red and white hoops.
MATCH DETAILS
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