Reid: A point to prove against Livingston

Feb 21 2008 By Andy McGilvray

BILLY REID has warned that his Hamilton side are out to prove a point against Livingston on Saturday.

The New Douglas Park side, who have taken jist one point from two games against Livi this eason, are also out to prove that they can bounce back from defeat at St Johnstone last weekend.

Reid was bitterly disappointed to lose 2-1 at McDiarmid Park, despite Accies leading 1-0 at half-time through a superb Mark Gilhaney goal. Dundee’s win over Morton cut Hamilton’s lead at the top to just four points.

Reid warned that Accies are gunning for revenge when Mark Proctor’s side visit New Douglas Park this weekend.

He said: “I think we’ve got a point to prove against Livingston because in the two games we’ve played we’ve not been at our best.

“We drew 1-1 at home, which was probably a fair result, but we had a poor performance at Almondvale and they won 2-0, so that’s something we hope to put right.

“It’s a massive game but we’ll be saying that all the time – every game is the biggest of the season for us but we’ve been saying that since day one.

“When you’re sitting top of the league, the next game always is the biggest if you want to stay there, and we’ve managed to do that for 25 games, with 11 to go.

“Here’s hoping that we can keep performing at the level we are, keep doing the right things. If we do that, we’ll not be far away.

“It’s good that we’ve been top of the league for the whole season but there’s no point in carrying that mantle all season and not putting the finishing touches to it, so that’s what we’ll be working on for the next 10 weeks.”

Speaking after Saturday’s defeat in Perth, Reid said: “When we play well we’re good, but we don’t seem to have the ability to win scrappy games. I didn’t think it was too good out there and that goes for both teams but you’ve got to win those games and we probably didn’t do enough in the second half.

“The two goals we conceded were shoddy. It was a good finish from Liam Craig for the first one but we haven’t matched the runner. The second goal ... well I have my own views that I’ll keep in-house but it was a comedy of errors, to be honest.

“Mark Gilhaney scored a good goal but even in the first half it wasn’t very pretty. We had a great chance at the end for James Grady to equalise but unfortunately he didn’t take it.

“With 15 minutes to go, we were sitting leading and to come here and win would have been a fantastic result, although we knew it was going to be a hard game.

“But I’ve got belief in my players and belief in what we’re trying to do. We’re four points clear with 11 games to go and we’ve got to be happy with that, but I’ve got a group of disappointed players in the dressing room because we know we didn’t play as well as we could.

“You could see how much St Johnstone wanted it on Saturday. It was the same with Dunfermline last week but the difference then was that we went about our business in the right way.

“We didn’t really do that on Saturday but it was never going to be a tidy football match – it was more about winning second balls and battling and playing off scraps, but one or two of them didn’t do that enough and I made that known in the dressing room.

“We’ve got to treat every game like a cup final, like we did against Dunfermline, and if we do that we’ve got the players to go on and win football matches. But if we switch off we’re the same as anybody else – mediocre.”

Reid is sweating over the fitness of his captain Alex Neil, who was taken off with a calf injury three minutes into the second half on Saturday, leaving Saints with more room to manoeuvre in midfield.

Neil is facing a two-match suspension which kicks in on March 1 against Queen of the South at Palmerston.