Elation and Frustration for Hamilton
Sunday, 24th Jul 2022CH - “I never scored any last season so to get a goal so early on is a proud moment especially here at East End Park with my family in the stand.”
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Saturday was a sweet and sour experience for Dunfermline’s midsummer signing Chris Hamilton. Twenty minutes into the game the 21 year old scored his first goal for the club, he celebrated that but early in the second half opponents Alloa hit back to level the match and subsequently win the penalty shoot-out denying the Pars the chance of progressing to the knock out stages of the Premier Sports Cup. Chris bemoaned the outcome:-
“It takes the shine off it because the most important thing was to win the game and go through but we didn’t do that. It was obviously a really proud moment scoring my first goal for Dunfermline. I don’t really score many goals, I never scored any last season so to get a goal so early on is a proud moment especially here at East End Park with my family in the stand.”
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Chris started his footballing with the Pars Foundation’s Mini Kickers and played at Crossgates Primrose before joining the Heart of Midlothian Football Academy. In June 2022 he was delighted to sign for the club he has always supported and so understandably when his header hit the net in front of the McCathie Stand it was a moment to savour and what a header it was:
“Yes it was good. I have watched it back and I think Josh hasn’t meant to put that ball in, I managed to get a good connection on it and just steer it in so I’m happy.”
Goals have not been a big part of Chris’ successes so far. He did not score in his 35 appearances for Dick Campbell’s Arbroath side last season and his two previous strikes were while out on loan at Dumbarton and Stirling Albion.
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“Saturday’s was my first headed professional goal. It was a good feeling to put us 1-0 up. Good that my family were there so it was a proud moment but in the end it doesn’t mean much.”
Trying to explain how the cup tie got away from Dunfermline the midfielder felt that you have to give Alloa some credit:-
“They came here and they were good. They controlled parts of the game but I thought that we were also good in spells as well. We probably didn’t control as much of the game as we want to.
“First half I thought that we were okay, we could have been more than 1-0 up. Second half I don’t think we were at the races and they came into the game a wee bit more. In saying that we still had chances to go further ahead and probably see the game out.”
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At only one up there was always a danger that Alloa would do just what Conor Sammon finished in 59th minute. Chris felt a second Pars goal could have been enough to win:-
“It gives you a cushion that settles players down, it settles the fans down but there is no point in creating these chances and not putting the ball in the back of the net. That’s probably the most frustrating thing, we are creating all these chances but if you don’t put the ball in the net there is no point in creating them.”
Frustration is clearly the major factor facing James McPake’s team and Chris maintained that kind of performance would not dent the team’s confidence:-
“No I don’t think so. It’s going to be a long season, the league is very competitive and there will be weeks where we are frustrated. We want to win every week but teams are going to want to frustrate us and take points off of us. Unfortunately that has happened on Saturday. I don’t think that we can be too down about it. We need to stick together, we have got a small squad so we don’t have time to get down about it. We need to pick ourselves up and go again against Alloa next week.”
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If the team wasn’t creating chances that would be worrying but Chris agreed that more of those chances need to be converted and he hopes that they will start taking them soon:-
“We are creating the chances but sometimes that is even more frustrating because you are just waiting on one of them to go in. It is just that final bit that we have to work on and be more ruthless - getting that clinical edge when we get the chance to kill teams off. Like I say if we had got another goal in the first half it would have killed their confidence and ability to come back on the game.”
Before Alloa’s equaliser Dunfermline had a quadruple chance right at the start of the second half. Chris had a shot as part of an assault on the Wasps goal:-
“I think I got a strike in as well but it was cleared off the line. Sometimes you need a bit of luck, one that bounces off one of their players and goes in and there you go - we are 2-0 up and we probably see the game out. We need to keep working hard and hopefully those things will start to turn for us.”
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