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Broadwood Stadium

Saturday 22^nd November 2025

This wasn’t a team or a ground that I had particularly high up the list to see but I started to worry that my hand was being forced slightly and so I made heading to Cumbernauld more of a priority before I missed my shot. If you’re wondering why I would be planning to go to Cumbernauld to see Hamilton Academical then you’ve quickly found the source of my concerns.

Accies haven’t been what you would consider a well run club in recent years. When the Club History section on your Wikipedia page only contains three sub-headings and the most recent two are ‘2017 Fraud Incident’ and ‘Decline’ things probably aren’t looking great for you. Here’s a brief summary of the last ten years in Hamilton Academical history….

In 2017 the club fell foul of a phishing scheme that resulted in them transferring nearly £1M to scammers which forced the club to abandon plans to improve their youth academy. A club with 151 years of history has it’s eyes on youth no longer. They spent the following year trying (unsuccesfully) to recover the money before resorting to (unsuccesfully) suing the Royal Bank of Scotland. At the end of the 2020/21 season they finished bottom of the Scottish Premiership and were relegated. Further relegation battles came on their return to the Championship but this fate was avoided for a couple years.

In the 2022/23 season they finished in ninth place and subsequently lost the playoff with Airdrieonians on penalties, securing their second relegation in three years. Life was happier in League One and they made an immediate return to the Championship by beating Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the playoff.

If the previous few years had been bad the the 2024/25 season was worse. Towards the end of the season the club were given a fine and a 15 point deduction for multiple breaches of the SPFL rules including failing to pay players, providing false information on the ownership of their stadium, and failing to meet the required standard of the Scottish FA licence to participate in the league. The club announced that they were astonished with the penalty and immediately appealed. The appeal was rejected, the penalty was upheld, and Hamilton finished bottom of the Championship and were relegated. As if to prove the point about the ownership of their stadium the club then revealed they would be moving to play their home games in Cumbernauld to the fury of their fans who were quick to say no to this and have largely boycotted the team since. With no football to watch the fans have instead filled their time with founding competing supporters associations and fan groups who seem to be more opposed to each other than they are to the goings-on at the club and give strong ‘Hamilton People’s Front’ vs ‘The People’s Front of Hamilton’ vibes.

Life back in League One again looked rosy in the early stages of this season. Accies started well and were sitting pretty at the top of the table. Then in October another penalty was handed down by the SPFL, this time for just six points but the rumours were swirling that further penalties may yet be coming. The punishment this time was for failing to keep records and documentation, and for absuing the transfer system by registering players while under a transfer embargo, registering professional players as amateurs, and paying trialists. Hamilton once again announced their intention to appeal before later quietly accepting the penalty.

The club finally published their accounts for the previous year (late, hence the suspicion of further penalties to come) which suggest that salaries at the club increased to £2.6M from just £247k the year before. Even accounting for a promotion to the Championship a rise of that magnitude is incomprehensible and managing to burn through so much money suggests poor financial management or something much worse.

Since then all club directors except for the Sporting Director have resigned, evidently no longer wanting to be in the room where it happens. Despite the release of a fairly bombastic statement, administration appeared to be looming and the world of Scottish football looked on wondering what comes next?

Next was the intervention of the SFA who decided that neither the sole remaining director nor the person seemingly bankrolling the club met their ‘fit and proper’ person test and as a result could no longer be involved in the running of the club. They were given seven days to identify new directors to run the club going forward. To remove any doubt about the seriousness of the situation Police Scotland announced on the same day that they were investigating alleged fraud at the club.

Over the next week I became increasingly pessimistic that the game would go ahead. There seemed to be no official response to the demand of the SFA and I thought the club might cease to exist before I got a chance to see them. Then, 24 hours after the deadline, another official statement was released by Accies. Seref Zengin, the man bankrolling the club, had accepted the SFA decision and agreed to step away from the club immediately. Gerry Strain, the sole remaining director, on the other hand had decided to appeal the decision. I was still no clearer about whether the game would go ahead. The appeal would take time, potentially enough time to allow the weekend’s game to take place, but with no-one funding the club would anything actually happen? I might not even know until I arrived at the ground, I’d just have to wait for it.

Despite the overwhelming turmoil behind the scenes the team have continued to perform well on the pitch. Even with the points deduction Hamilton find themselves in 7th position 10 points clear of bottom place Cove Rangers and almost certainly clear of any danger of a relegation fight (pending further sanctions of course….). Without the points deduction they would have been second in the league and pushing for promotion.

Sitting in one of the positions between Accies and Cove are today’s opposition, Kelty Hearts. Kelty haven’t had a particularly impressive start to the season and the panic may be starting to set in, as evidenced by the return to the touchline of Assistant Manager Michael Tidser. Tidser was player-manager for Kelty for 18 months before he left in January to take over at Dunfermline. He lasted just two months and 11 games there before being sacked. His next role was, ironically, as Academy Coach at Hamilton who he joined in late July but the decision by the club to ‘pause’ the running of the academy just two weeks later brought that job to a swift end. Tidser then decided to attempt a comeback as a player at Montrose but made just four appearances before he returned to Kelty to work as right hand man to the current manager, and his former captain, Tam O’Ware. All very strange….

With a shorter journey than I had faced to Greenock a couple of weeks ago I was able to head out at a more civilised hour in the morning this time round. My train left Aberdeen at 1044 and was initially the same route towards Glasgow as I had taken last time out. This time however I was changing in Stirling and Scotrail decided to exert their influence on my travels for the first time. I had just six minutes between trains at Stirling and, almost inevitably, we arrived seven minutes late. The next option was another half an hour away so I resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to wait for it.

Fortunately I’d left myself enough time in my plans that I still arrived not long after the gates had opened at Broadwood. I made my way into the ground and headed straight out onto the stand. I was the first person there which really says more about Accies attendances than anything else. Back on the Premiership they were averaging crowds of nearly 3,000 and even last season they regularly saw 1,200 people in the stands. This year, as a result of the move 12 miles away from Hamilton and the subsequent boycotts, they have only drawn more than 300 on three occasions. In a stadium that holds around 8,000 it’s not a good look.

There’s also no club shop, no programmes, no teamsheets, and not even a 50/50 halftime draw which is something you see at Sunday league levels in some places. For a club that is screaming for funds there are missed opportunities absolutely everywhere. It’s understandable why Accies fans don’t want to be playing in Broadwood but it has the potential to be an excellent ground (for somebody). It’s big, spacious, well laid out, easily accessible, and even has a proper match clock which surprising numbers of grounds seem to be lacking. The fact it was so empty though, I’d estimate we probably broke through 300 again but not by much, means that it won’t rank high on my list I’m afraid.

Warm-ups complete the players received their final instructions and emerged from the tunnel ready for kick-off. Hamilton got things going and instantly it was clear that they were the full-time team and Kelty the part-timers. They were stronger, faster and more clinical with their passes and they were playing with an intent that seemed like it might blow us all away.

It didn’t take long for Accies to turn this bright start into an early lead either. After just six minutes Connor Smith dropped back into defence to pick up the ball and turned and played a brilliant through pass to Stuart McKinstry down the right hand side. McKinstry crossed first time and picked out Oli Shaw on the edge of the six yard box and he had the easiest job to put it in the back of the net.

With a quarter of an hour gone Kyle Gourlay in the Kelty goal drilled a low goal kick which hit one of his own players in the abdomen. As he doubled over in pain the player caught the ball with both hands, dropped it at his feet and played on, as did the referee. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more blatant handball and the fans around me couldn’t contain their frustration.

Kelty started to play themselves into the game more and more as time progressed. Hamilton’s level of play had dropped off and the chances were all falling to the visitors. They got their reward on 25′ when Craig Johnston was on had to toe poke the ball home after a series of messy and lazy attempts at defending from Accies.

With the scores level the game turned into something that looked more like basketball than football. It was end to end with non-stop attacks for the next 20 minutes. Both teams traded opportunities but both lacking were lacking the crucial final pass. The best chances fell to Kelty though with a goal ruled out for offside and another goal only prevented by a last ditch tackle from Cale Loughrey.

Despite the breathless nature of the game the teams were level at halftime as the players made their way back to the dressing room to take a break.

The second half started much the same as the first half had ended. The first chance fell to Kelty who won a free kick just on the edge of the penalty box but it was punched well clear by Accies keeper Jamie Smith. A few minutes later Hamilton had their own free kick in almost exactly the same spot as Kelty’s. The ball into the box from Steven Bradley left Gourlay helpless and he could do nothing to stop Shaw’s powerful header finding the back of the net to restore Accies’ lead.

The goal didn’t knock the wind out of Kelty though who immediately came back at Accies and twice forced Smith into good saves to maintain Hamilton’s lead. The pattern of the game continued with both teams playing attractive, attacking football and creating a really entertaining game.

It was obvious that there was another goal in the game, the only question being who would manage to claim it. When it came it was almost out of nowhere when a cross from Bradley looked to have been overhit before Kevin O’Hara sneaked in at the back post to head Accies into a seemingly unassailable 3 – 1 lead.

Kelty continued to push and there was time for them to attack one last time just before the final whistle. Smith failed to deal with a cross and the ball looked to be heading goalward before being cleared off the line. At this point the referee decided that would be enough for today and blew the final whistle.

Accies will have been satisfied with both the performance and the result and they have now climbed back up to fifth in the league. Kelty on the other hand have fallen to bottom of League One and face a fight to stay alive in the division.

Hamilton were a fun watch and in Oli Shaw they have a player that definitely wouldn’t look out of place in a Championship team. It’s a shame that everything happening off the pitch is threatening the existence of such an old and famous club and causing the fans to lose their connection with the team. Unfortunately there were lots of little things today that made me feel as though Accies are a club that are circling the drain.

It had started raining by the time that I made my way out of the ground so I was faced with a damp 20 minute walk back to the station. Fortunately I had a longer change at Stirling on the way home so faced no risk of missing my connection and the lack of drunk rugby fans this week was a welcome relief.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Broadwood Stadium
• Home
  • Hamilton Academical
• Away
  • Kelty Hearts
• Competition
  • Scottish League One
• Result
  • 3 – 1
• Scorers
  • Oli Shaw (2), Kevin O’Hara | Craig Johnston
• Attendance
  • 410
• Cost
  • £20
• Total distance travelled
  • 220 miles
• Transport
  • Train
• My MotM
  • Oli Shaw, looked threatening for the whole game and often managed to take both of Kelty’s central defenders out of the game through his presence. He set Hamilton on their way with the early goal and restored their lead with a powerful header.