Now It's Time To Show You've Got Bottle - Reid

Dec 13 2007

BILLY Reid this week admitted his young Hamilton side is under pressure... and said it’s up to them to prove they can handle it.

Only a goal difference of five now separates First Division leaders Hamilton and second-placed Dundee, and Reid says it’s time for his players to show their character during what is going to be a vital period over Christmas and New Year.

Saturday’s visit by St Johnstone starts a five-game period that could make or break Hamilton’s season — and four of them are at home.

Reid said: “Dundee have done well to keep going and it’s ‘game-on’ now — we’ll see if we can handle it.

“It’s all right saying ‘we’ve got good players’, but can we handle being at the top of the league all the time?

“The players need to ask themselves and I need to ask myself as the manager, if we’re good enough. It’s at times like this that you show what you’re made of.

“Football is easy when you’re playing well and everything is going well for you – it’s when things start going against you that you see true character.

“December and January are always really important months in terms of a league championship, and we have a run of games coming up that could have a crucial bearing on where we are at the end of the season.”

The Accies gaffer added: “Four of our next five games are at home and nobody relishes coming to New Douglas Park, but every one of them will be a test. How we handle that is important.

“You don’t win all of these games without being good enough, but the pressure is on us, and that’s always going to be the case when you’re top of the table.

“Livingston showed on Saturday how hungry they were to beat us and that will always be the case – the Old Firm get it every week. Teams aren’t just going to stand there and let you whitewash them, they’re going to fight, show passion and try to get the result and we have to match that.”

Reid was bitterly disappointed with Saturday’s 2-0 reverse at Almondvale and said it was the first time this season that his high-flying side had let themselves down.

He said: “That was the most inept performance of the season for us. I’m not going to slaughter my players because they’ve been fantastic, but that wasn’t good enough.

“We’ve lost games before this season, against Queen of the South and Dundee particularly, where we’ve played well — the fight, passion and desire has been there and we could have taken something.

“But on Saturday we looked dead. From the first minute we didn’t compete and I thought we made them look good; Livingston looked like the team at the top of the table.

“That wasn’t good enough in terms of passion, desire and hunger, which for the first time this season I can say we never had.

“I thought Livingston played well and deserved to win the game, but it was so unlike us because we usually get about people.”

Reid continued: “To win football matches I think you need five or six people playing well, and if I’m being honest we were lucky if we had one or two. If three-quarters of them are honest, they’ll admit they were nowhere near the standard they should have been.

“Football doesn’t have a magic formula. The best teams have bad performances and we need to bounce back from it.”