Hamilton Accies Women boss' 'something special' plea granted in late win

Hamilton Accies Women boss Robert Watson told his side they needed to produce something special to claw back a two-goal deficit at Gartcairn – and got his wish as they ran out 3-2 winners on Sunday.

Sophie Townsley pulled a goal back 30 seconds into the second half, with Megan Quinn levelling from a corner in 49 minutes, before Josi Giard bagged a dramatic winner with three minutes remaining in Airdrie.

That maintained Accies’ eight-point lead over Kilmarnock at the top of SWPL2, and they’re 12 ahead of third-placed Boroughmuir.

Watson said: “Overall I think we did deserve to win the game.

“We took a bit of time to adjust to the conditions, in the first half the wind was coming straight down the pitch into our goal, it took us a bit of time to deal with the long ball.

“Their first goal came from a bit of an error through us trying to play out, maybe at the wrong time, and the second goal has come from a corner.

“Even with that, we’ve hit the post and the bar in the first half, so it could quite easily have been 2-1 or 2-2.

“We completely dominated the second half, bar one save Chloe Nicolson has had to make.

“We’ve hit the post and bar again, and forced their goalkeeper into a number of saves.

“Those two quick goals right after half-time have really changed the momentum of the game and I felt that we were more than deserved winners, I don’t think anybody can have too many complaints about it.”

Watson knew his side were up against it at the interval, but that the game was far from finished.

“I said to them that we’re in the game, it’s a bit strange to be 2-0 down, but we’re going to have to produce something special to turn the game around,” said Watson.

“Sophie scores less than 30 seconds after the restart, Megan scores