Hamilton Accies aiming for survival

Apr 16 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BILLY REID will cast an interested eye over the post-split SPL fixtures following Saturday’s vital visit to Inverness because he believes Hamilton are due at least three home games.

The SPL will release the fixtures by Monday morning at the latest and Reid pointed out that Accies will have already visited most of their relegation rivals twice this season.

He explained: “The split is coming up and we’ll take what comes our way but it will be interesting to see the break-up of the fixtures.

“We’re due to play Falkirk, Inverness and Kilmarnock and all of those games should be at home, since we’ll already have been to their place twice this season.

“Similarly, we’ve played St Mirren twice at New Douglas Park so we’ll be due a visit there and it depends on who ends up seventh; we’ve only been to Hibs once but Motherwell twice.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will actually happen though so it will be interesting to see where we are.

“Either way, they will all be huge games and hopefully we can kick in, take our chances, and start picking up points again.”

An inability to convert chances returned to haunt Hamilton on Saturday as they crashed 1-0 at home to Dundee United but Reid is confident that goals will come.

He said: “It would be huge for us to get three points against Inverness ahead of the split and we have a great incentive to do that.

“We’ve beaten them twice this season but they will be dangerous and are on a decent wee run.

“It’s frustrating that we haven’t scored in our last six matches but somebody will eventually step up and take that chance.

“We know what we need to do, how many points we need to stay up, and I’m confident that we’ll get them.”

Reid was disappointed in Saturday’s defeat but admitted his players didn’t do enough to win the game.

He added: “We started terribly while United played really well in the first half and were right in our faces.

“They won the battle in the middle of the park, they were the team on the ascendency, they created chances and it was a smashing finish by Craig Conway for their goal.

“However, I thought the ball was out before Franco Sandaza cut it back. I thought so at the time and I checked it on the monitor but I felt that our players could have reacted more.

“In the second half, we said to the players that we needed to be better than that because we didn’t play. They looked tired and lethargic and we had too many players not playing well enough to win the game.

“In saying that, we had two or three good chances to score and nick a point – and it would have been nicking a point. They were decent chances and we should have finished them.”

Hamilton have several injury problems as they prepare for their visit to the Highlands.

Winger Mark Corcoran and striker Richard Offiong are definitely out, while right-back Trent McClenahan is rated 50-50.

Young defender Jordan McMillan has returned to Rangers after a hernia problem ended his season and Irish stopper David Elebert will also miss the game.

Goalkeeper Tomas Cerny is struggling with a knee injury picked up during Saturday’s defeat and captain Alex Neil also has a niggle, but Reid hopes both will be passed fit to play.