Damian Casalinuovo is already fondly remembered by Dundee United fans for kick-starting, or rather hand-starting, last season’s Scottish Cup run at Partick Thistle.
Now a Hamilton player, his popularity will have increased even further thanks to a shocking blunder in front of goal that let the Tangerines off the hook on Saturday.
With the SPL basement boys a goal in front and just 15 minutes left on the clock, the Argentinian left Sean Dillon in his wake and the goal was at his mercy with only Dusan Pernis to beat to score his first for the New Douglas Park club and seal a much- needed first home league win of the season.
From there it all went horribly wrong as he stubbed the turf with his swing at the ball, fell flat on his face and the trundler of a shot missed the target by some distance.
The 23-year-old has made it on to Saturday morning show Soccer AM thanks to his handball goal at Firhill last year and expects to make a second appearance.
He said, “We are fighting relegation and, like the team, I am lacking confidence at the moment. I created the chance for myself but I hit the ground. I was asking, ‘Please ground, drag me down.’ It felt awful.
“I’m sure I’ll be watching myself on Soccer AM again. I’d be laughing about it with my team-mates if we’d won but we conceded a late goal and it feels horrible.”
Casalinuovo’s howler made three misses by United in the first half look like tough chances but they were not.Best moveFirst to fail to hit the target was David Goodwillie on 12 minutes when he got on the end of what would prove to be their best move of the match.
Johnny Russell flicked the ball to Keith Watson, who then released Scott Robertson down the right and Goodwillie’s header from six yards out was steered wide of Tomas Cerny’s left hand post.
On 20 minutes Goodwillie slid a perfectly-weighted pass across goal from the right. Russell arrived just beyond the back post two yards out but could not wrap his left foot round the ball and could only find the side netting.
United were punished on 33 minutes when Gavin Skelton was adjudged to have been impeded by Prince Buaben just inside the box, and Mickael Antoine-Curier converted the penalty.
Chance number three swiftly followed when Paul Dixon crossed from the left and David Robertson got underneath it to head the ball over.
As they tend to do, Peter Houston’s men left it late though by their standards this season 83 minutes is quite early to equalise.
By this time Houston had “all the forwards we’ve got” on the pitch and one of the three substitutes used, Andis Shala, showed how it is done by bulleting a header home from a Craig Conway cross.
United had taken advantage of a perhaps understandably nervy home team which had retreated deeper and deeper. Accies’ anguish would have been even more acute had Cerny not produced an excellent block from Goodwillie in the last minute.
Although this was a comeback point, the mood in the United camp after the match was downbeat.
Russell said, “You can’t really judge the St Johnstone game in midweek because the pitch didn’t allow us to play much football, but I didn’t feel we played nearly as well today as we did when we lost to Hearts last weekend.
“We were poor, but we still had the chances to win the game in the first half and didn’t take any of them. One of them was mine.
“The ball at the back post was a bit far away from me but I should still be scoring chances like that. We’re probably going to look back on that game and regret dropping two points like that.”
The unexpected return to goalscoring ways of Shala it was his first strike since last season’s Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox was the one highlight.
Russell said, “We’re all really pleased for Andis. It was a good goal. He’s had to bide his time for his chance but we see in training all the time how good he is in the air. He’s shown that if we get the ball in the box to him he’ll score.”
Houston admitted that the draw constituted “two points dropped.”
He said, “We didn’t play well but we had some great chances. Billy (Reid) complained last week that his team got a soft penalty against them, but he won’t get a softer penalty than that for him.
“My players say that their boy took a touch and then went flying, roaring for a penalty. It was very, very soft. I’ll complain about it this week and maybe on Tuesday night we might get one.
“The game was disappointing in many, many ways but I will give credit to the players for battling again right to the end.”