McArthur: We’ve a point to prove against Rangers

Dec 4 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

MIDFIELDER James McArthur says Hamilton have a point to prove when they take on Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday.

The 21-year-old feels that Accies haven’t done themselves justice when jousting with the Old Firm in Glasgow and hopes that changes this weekend.

Speaking after Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Kilmarnock he said: “That’s us off the bottom of the SPL but we’ve got a hard game against Rangers on Saturday.

“We’re not expected to take anything but we’ll go there and try to put on a good display.

“I don’t think we’ve done ourselves justice at Ibrox or Parkhead but it’s hard to go there and pick anything up because Rangers and Celtic are quality sides.

“But we’ll go to Ibrox and try to put on a good display.

“We won’t let nerves affect us because adrenaline will take us through and it’s just great to play at places like that.”

McArthur was delighted with Saturday’s win and said it had long overdue.

“In the last few weeks, we’ve been putting good performances in. We’ve looked a lit more solid and that victory was coming.

“I think we’ve been building on it ever since the draw against Falkirk. We were unlucky against Celtic and Hearts after that and we were unfortunate to draw against Dundee United in the last minute.

“We weren’t brilliant on Saturday but it’s important that we picked up the three points.”

Although the result took Hamilton off the bottom of the SPL, two points clear of St Mirren, McArthur knows there’s a lot of hard work to be done.

However, he said: “We’re not panicking about being down at the bottom of the table, as long as we’re not there going into the last quarter.

“We need to start picking up points and get ourselves away from there.

“You want to go into a Saturday night and be able to enjoy the fact that you’ve won, so hopefully we’ll get more nights like that.”