ACCIES’ PLEA TO ABSENT SUPPORTERS

May 31 2007

LES Gray believes Hamilton Accies have given fans a team they can be proud of – and said it’s now up to the town to support them.

Vice-chairman Gray isn’t unhappy with the supporters who flock to New Douglas Park, but it does concern him that only a core of around 1000 do so on a regular basis.

In four years, Gray and chairman Ronnie MacDonald have taken Hamilton from being Second Division also-rans to an established First Division club with one of the finest youth set-ups in Scotland.

The club is making huge strides on and off the park, but Gray says it’s all pointless if more people don’t show up to see the end product.

He said: “I would like to encourage more local people to come out and see our young players.

“I know the club had gone through some hard times before we took over, but we’ve been here for four years now, and I would like to think we’ve done enough in that time to get the support of the local people, and for them to see that we’re here for the long haul.

“All it would take to change the ballpark for us would be for an extra 200 or 300 fans to go to our games every week.

“Equally, a good cup run can make a big difference, financially.

“The season before last we got to the Challenge Cup Final and the Scottish Cup quarter-finals, with a replay on Sky.

“That’s huge, and the difference between giving you the budget to have a real go the following season, and not.”

Gray added: “Ronnie and I own this club now, and we’re fully committed to trying to drive it forward.

“We’ve gone through a restructuring process over the past two or three months, which has resulted in our youth set-up being changed to Academy status.

“Frank McAvoy has been appointed as academy director, and we’ll have a new sports science and sports medical department, which will be headed up by Allan Rankin — one of the top young physios in the country.

“We have a diet and nutritionist in Alan Harvey, and Ross Hughes, who is our sports scientist.

“Our whole system has been revamped and the quality of our coaches has been increased because the SFA have raised the bar a wee bit — which we’re quite pleased about, because we were doing most of those things anyway.

“There are a lot of avenues that we are exploring commercially, and in stadium development there are a whole host of things going on that are crucial to the future of this club.”

Gray hopes that Hamilton will eventually reach the SPL with a team full of home-grown, Scottish talent.

He said: “I think we had nine boys make their debut last season, all of whom came through our youth initiative, so as far as we’re concerned it’s paying dividends.

“We’re spending a lot of time, effort and money to get this bit right, and that means that other clubs are sniffing around us.

“Our under-17s have beaten Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen, and recently defeated Hibs 7-0 here at New Douglas Park.

“There is still a lot of work to do, and there are a lot of young kids coming through at 15, 16 and 17 who will be the next batch.

“My goal has always been for us to get to the Premierleague using a bunch of young, Scottish players. The whole reason I’m here is to give young lads a chance.

“We’ve got to do that, because the way Scottish football is going just now, trying to sustain full-time teams is getting tougher.

“If we were to apply the resource that we give to the youth system to the first team it might change our position and the type of player that we could attract — but it would be very short-term.

“It would probably give us a better chance of winning the First Division, but it would only be for one year, and if we didn’t win it, I don’t think Ronnie and I would be prepared to throw that money about.

“We are prepared to invest in the youth set-up, because we can see tangible results.

“What we’re trying to do is create a long-term future for the club and the way to do that is by promoting your youth policy, driving it, making it efficient, and getting it working properly. We’re doing that.”

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