He’s back – and hoping to make his Mark

Nov 13 2008 by Shirley Bartynek, Hamilton Advertiser

COMEBACK defender Mark McLaughlin this week told his team-mates to build on Saturday’s home draw with Falkirk, and believes that with a bit of luck on their side Hamilton will start to win games again.

Saturday’s 1-1 result arrested a barren run of six straight SPL wins, and ‘Marko’ believes Accies should have taken all three points.

But from a personal point of view, the talismanic stopper was just happy to get 90 minutes under his belt.

He said: “It’s a start, we’ve got the point, and we need to build on that now.

“We’re obviously disappointed at not getting all three points, but it’s something we need to build on; if we continue to play like that and get a little bit of luck we’ll start to pick up points.”

McLaughlin added: “It was a great finish from young James for our goal, but the disappointing thing for me was the goal we gave away at the start of the second half, because I think that kind of changed it and got Falkirk back into the game.

“If we could have held out for another 10 minutes it would have frustrated them and that could have made all the difference.

“I thought we probably shaded it, we were the better side, but Falkirk are a good team and when they brought on Michael Higdon he did well.

“It was a great header by him, but to be fair I thought it was a foul on Brian Easton. However, that’s just one of those things.”

Having watched from the sidelines as he recovered from a medial ligament injury that kept him out for 11 games in the SPL and Co-operative Insurance Cup, Marko doesn’t believe that Hamilton have done too much wrong.

He said: “There hasn’t been much wrong in the last few weeks, but we have given soft goals away. We need to tighten up, but not just defensively – we need to defend from the front, and I think we did that on Saturday.

“Big Lucas Akins and Richie Offiong looked decent up front, and on another day they could have gone on and got another couple of goals.”

Mark was surprised at getting the full 90 minutes, but feels that he has benefited and hopes to play his part against Celtic on Sunday.

He said: “I had played two reserve matches, playing 45 against St Mirren and 68 against Rangers, and if you had asked me before the game if I’d have played the 90 minutes I wouldn’t have been too sure, to be honest.

“But adrenaline got me through it and it’s just good to be back. I’m probably a couple of weeks away from match fitness, but I felt OK out there.”

Mark added: “I had spoken to the gaffer, Billy Reid, a few weeks ago and he asked when he could get me back and we looked for a game against a so-called lesser team, but there aren’t any in this league!

“But I’m just looking forward to being back playing. I’ve missed out on games at Parkhead and Ibrox, but that doesn’t bother me – I just want to play football and be involved in every game, and it doesn’t matter who it’s against or where.