Carrigan eyes Dons clash for second debut

Aug 28 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BRIAN Carrigan has set his sights on the visit to Aberdeen on September 13 as he bids to make a second Hamilton debut.

An ankle injury has kept the midfielder out of contention so far, while a red card in his final match for Linlithgow Rose last season earned him a two-match ban, which he will have served by the end of Saturday’s visit by Hearts.

Carrigan (28), knows he will have to force his way into boss Billy Reid’s plans, but is confident of making an impact in the SPL.

He said: “I’m delighted to be back. I never thought I would get this chance again, but I met the gaffer, Billy Reid, and he was pretty keen to get me in, so I came in and did the training.

“I thought I did reasonably well so he gave me a chance and gave me a year.

“I knew before I came in that I was going to need some extra training, and that it would take me a bit of time to get used to being full-time again, because it was only two nights a week at Linlithgow.

“But hopefully once my suspension is over I’ll be ready to go back in.

“If the gaffer needs me, hopefully I’ll be ready to do a job for him.

“I’ve done all right so far, and I feel as if I’ve settled in. All the boys have made it pretty easy, so I’m delighted with that.

“There are probably six or seven guys, maybe more, who were here when I was at Hamilton before, so that has helped as well.”

Carrigan spent two seasons at Linlithgow Rose and enjoyed success with the East Super League club.

“I think we won five trophies in my first year at Linlithgow, including the Scottish Cup,” Carrigan said.

“That’s obviously the biggest thing in junior football, so I was delighted with that.

“I think I also got something like 67 goals in two years, so that was nice as well.

“We got into the senior Scottish Cup and got put out by Queen of the South, but we had a good wee run and didn’t disgrace ourselves.”

‘Carrots’ now hopes to write the next chapter of his career in the SPL with Accies, and feels they’ve got off to a great start.

He said: “In the first game against Dundee United they said they didn’t pass the ball well, but I didn’t think we let them – we were in their faces with some great performances and everybody was brilliant on the night.

“It was a tough game up at Inverness as well and I don’t think we played as well as we can, but overall we couldn’t have asked for a better start.

“The main thing in this league is scoring goals, and we’ve shown already that we can get them. Last season we didn’t concede too many either, and that will be a big thing.”