ACCIES DISH OUT THE FEAR FACTOR

Apr 5 2007 By Andy McGilvray

HAMILTON Accies have been told to turn New Douglas Park into a fortress as they bid for promotion next season.

Boss Billy Reid is already pleased with a remarkable record of just four home league defeats in two seasons, but wants to better that as he bids for SPL football.

He said: “We’ve got three hard games at home and one away, starting with Livingston at New Douglas Park on Saturday.

“All of our remaining games are against top teams, but there is no reason why we can’t win them.

“I’m quite sure that St Johnstone and Gretna know what they’re coming to, because Partick Thistle are the only team to have beaten us in the league at home this season and I don’t think we deserved to lose even then.

“Our home form is good, we enjoy playing on the fieldturf surface; it encourages you to pass the ball, I think we do that, and that’s why we get results.

“Nobody wants to come here, our home form is good, and that’s important for me.

“To be a challenging team in any league, your home ground has got to be somewhere that people fear going to.”

Reid was pleased to extend that proud record with a 1-0 win over Ross County on Saturday, courtesy of Marvyn Wilson’s first Hamilton goal.

And that was followed by a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Queen of the South at Palmerston Park, which saw Brian Wake notch his fourth strike of the season.

Following the draw in Dumfries — which reduced the gap on second-placed St Johnstone to four points — Reid said: “It was scrappy, we were playing off second balls, but we knew that would be the case before we went into the game.

“The pitch at Palmerston Park is the complete opposite of our own, but we need to learn how to adapt.

“I told the players at half-time that they were involved in an old-fashioned football match, where challenges were going in, they had to win headers, and play off second balls.

“I don’t have any complaints, I thought a draw was fair.

“We didn’t go there trying to take a point, we wanted to win the game and close the gap on St Johnstone.

“We scored after five minutes, they equalised, and I thought we were slightly on the ascendency, created chances, and their keeper made a couple of good saves, so we didn’t sit back.

“We got pinned back a wee bit in the second half, as expected, because Queens were on an unbeaten run of nine games, and we knew what we were going up against.

“I thought Brian Wake put in a great shift up front for me, and took his goal well.”

A major plus-point was the performance of 17-year-old Gerry McLauchlan, in only his second top-team game, when he replaced James Gibson at half-time.

And Reid enthused: “I knew Gerry could compete at that level, and he did well.

“Gerry had been doing really well in the under-19s, we took him to Palmerston Park, and I told him after the game that he was a credit to himself.

“He won every header, made tackles at the right time, and is just another player coming through our youth system.”

Reid admitted Saturday’s result against County was an “ugly” win, but pointed out that successful teams sometimes need to scrap out victories.

“Football isn’t pretty all the time,” he said, “but we’ll gladly take the three points.

“At the end of the day, clean sheets win you games so I’m pleased with that.

“I was delighted with how we started the game — Mark Gilhaney had a great chance, we hit the crossbar and then scored.

“It looked as though we would run over the top of them, but then we just stopped playing and it got scrappier.

“There have been times this season when we’ve played well and not won.”

He added: “We were really poor up at Ross County, but on Saturday we came sprinting out of the traps. I thought some of the play in the first 20 minutes was brilliant to watch.”

Reid is content with Hamilton’s season which has seen them triumph over adversity to be sitting a quite comfortable third in the First Division.

He said: “We’re four points away from St Johnstone, and that’s pleasing.

“I didn’t set any targets this year in terms of winning the league because I knew we would have a young group of players who would be learning all the time.

“We’ve had a few setbacks this year, with Mark McLaughlin playing only five games and our number one goalkeeper Davie McEwan hardly playing.

“That was hard to patch over, but I did, and the goalkeeper, big Sean Murdoch, has come in and been brilliant.

“We’re building, we’ve got most of that squad signed up for next season, and there’s more young talent coming through our system — that’s the future.”

Midfielder Jamie McClen was released by the club on Saturday.

Striker Richard Offiong is available on Saturday after serving a two-match suspension.