MAKE OR BREAK TIME AS ACCIES TAKE ON SAINTS

Dec 15 2006 By Andy McGilvray

BEATING St Johnstone on Saturday will prove Hamilton Accies have serious title credentials, according to manager Billy Reid.

The New Douglas Park gaffer believes that Saturday’s visit by the Perth Saints could make or break Accies’ season.

Hamilton currently sit joint-third in the First Division on goal difference with St Johnstone, six points away from leaders Gretna.

A win would improve Accies’ chances of challenging for the title, but defeat could drop them down to fifth spot.

Reid knows the task in hand and said: “I think this game will make or break our season.

“If we have any aspirations of being at the top end of the table, we need to win this match and kick on from there.

“This is going to be a test of our credentials, but that’s always the case in the First Division — if you want to be up at the top, you’re being tested all the time.

“St Johnstone have the biggest budget, along with Gretna, they’ve got the most experienced squad, full of guys who have been through the course before, so there’s no reason why they won’t be challenging for the title and promotion to the SPL come the end of the season.

“But we’re looking after ourselves at Hamilton. At the moment we are on the same points as St Johnstone, so it will be an interesting game.”

Billy goes into Saturday’s New Douglas Park clash in confident mood, but knows Accies need to stop conceding cheap goals if they are to get full points.

He said: “We’re undefeated recently and we’ve only lost two of our last six or seven matches.

“However, we’re drawing too many games at the moment, and that’s down to losing silly goals.

“We’ve had a habit of gifting goals recently and on Saturday we conceded our fourth penalty in as many weeks.

“If you keep doing that you’re not going to win games, and we’ve stressed that to the players during the week.”

Reid felt Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Queen of the South was probably a fair result, but still felt it was two points dropped in their promiotion chase.

He said: “We didn’t play at all in the first half, although we came close on a number of occasions, and none moreso than Davie Winters’ shot off the crossbar in 44 minutes, which was a wee bit unlucky.

“By the standards that we’ve set ourselves this year, our first-half performance wasn’t good enough, and we told the players that at half-time.

“We went to Dumfries with a game plan but that went out the window in the first nine minutes when we gave away a penalty.

“It’s been a trait lately where the ball is knocked back into our box and just causes an absolute ‘holocaust’.

“Queens left themselves a mountain to climb by going down to 10 men, and it’s never easy in that situation when you’re a goal down, because they just shut up shop — and rightly so.

“We’ve come back into it and gave them a wee bit of a battering, but in all honesty Queens deserved their point for hanging on.

“It’s a point away from home, but if you’ve got aspirations of finishing up at the top end of the table, then you’ve got to say that it’s two points dropped.”

Reid praised goal hero Richard Offiong, who climbed off the bench at half-time and snatched a late leveller.

He said: “Richard Offiong has been sensational at this club; he’s an absolute livewire and if we can keep him fit then we will be a force to be reckoned with.

“He keeps defenders on the back foot, his pace is electric, we asked him at half-time to give us a lift, and he certainly did that.

“We’ve told Richard that he can be anything that he wants to be in this league — I don’t see any other player with the pace that he has, and he makes it look so easy.

“We know our performance is going to be better when we bring on the likes of Mark Gilhaney and Richard Offiong, with the pace they’ve got, but one or two others didn’t do themselves justice in the first half.

“But, as I’ve said all along, once we get our first-team on the park you’ll see a different Hamilton Accies.”

Left-back James Gibson (17), last week signed a three-year deal, alongside fellow defender Brian Easton (18).