McArthur aims to set record straight at Celtic

Apr 2 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

JAMES McArthur is desperate to prove a point against Celtic on Saturday, after being “the worst player on the park” when Hamilton last visited Parkhead.

The midfield ace, who has been talismanic this season, delivered the frank – and somewhat harsh – self-assessment when gearing up for a tilt against the Scottish champions, who he hopes are tired from their recent exploits.

An extra-time Co-operative Insurance Cup final win over bitter rivals Rangers and several key players being involved in international double-headers could leave Gordon Strachan’s side jaded, and McArthur wants Accies to exploit that.

Billy Reid’s men, in comparison, have been on a mid-season break to Marbella in Spain and that has given a few of their key stars a chance to recover from injuries.

James told the Advertiser: “I’m happy to come back from our break and play Celtic at their place, especially with the extra game they’ve played and the internationals they’ve been involved in.

“There’s also going to be a lot of pressure on them as they’re top of the table right now.

“I missed a penalty the last time we were at Celtic Park and I was the worst player on the park that day, so I’ll be hoping to make amends for that and do a lot better for myself.

“It’s important to do well at places like Celtic Park and Ibrox because your mind-set is that you want to prove you can go to those places and do well.

“It’s going to be tough, they’re top of the league, and they’re up there with some of the top sides in Europe.

“I don’t think Celtic have been as good as in previous years, but they’re still a top-class side.”

On Hamilton’s break in Marbella, McArthur (21), said: “The break has definitely helped, with the boys mingling together and just the break from playing giving us a good chance to blow off some steam.

“It was important for us to get the break, especially with the injuries we have.

“Brian Easton’s has cleared up now and I think a lot of the boys with knocks have finally cleared up, so it was good from that point of view.”

James himself has a cartilage tear, but has opted to play through the pain barrier until the end of the season.

It’s a gamble, but one the midfielder hopes will pay off as he doesn’t want to miss out as Accies battle to stay in the SPL.

He said: “My situation is the same as it was. I’m not going to get any better, but I’m hopefully not going to get any worse either. I’ll just need to keep playing through it.

“When we’re not doing stuff it isn’t too bad but it doesn’t matter if I rest for two weeks or six weeks – as soon as I go out on that pitch, if I twist and turn it’s a wee bit sore, but I’ll just need to get through that.

“It was in my mind to get the op, and it was in my mind to play, but I’m happy that I made the decision to play.

“I think I would really regret sitting in that stand while we played the last games of the season and I want to make sure we stay in this league.

“I worked out that if I went for the operation last week I would have missed three games and that would have left five.

“That wouldn’t have been as bad as I had previously thought, but missing three games is still a lot and we need to pick up as many points as possible to try and make sure we climb the table.

“At one point we were nine or 11 points clear or whatever and that has been cut down to six, so we need to make sure we keep picking up points – relegation is still an issue.

“Teams below us can still go on runs; take Inverness, who were bottom of the league and looking down and out, but they got a few good wins – including beating Rangers at Ibrox – which was unexpected.

“There are a lot of good teams in this league who can go on runs, and some of them are below us so, hopefully, we can pick up another few wins and go on a run of our own.”

James added: “We’ve done really well to be where we are, especially given that it’s our first year in the Premier League, but if I’m being honest I think we had expectations of our own. We had the belief that we could be up there.

“We’ve been disappointed to have been dragged back into it but we’ve had a lot of hard games recently, like Rangers twice, and because there are so many good teams in this league it’s difficult enough to pick up points as it is.

“In the last two or three games we’ve had injuries, but without it being too bad. When Mark McLaughlin was out for seven or eight weeks earlier in the season it was a massive miss, but I think we’ve had a few breaks with injuries.

“We had a lot of injuries at the one time, but I think that made it look worse than it was.”

James has been the subject of speculation linking him with moves to big clubs such as the Old Firm and a few down in England, but he says he takes that in his stride.

He said: “Speculation happens – you see James McCarthy who is always linked with clubs – but you just try and forget about it because nothing is going to happen just now, it’s just clubs watching you.

“It gives you a wee bit of a confidence boost but you just try and put that to the back of your mind.

“It definitely gives you a boost to know that a lot of clubs are watching you because that shows that they’re interested, and shows that you’re doing something right.”