Hamilton Accies boss to use international break as 'mini pre-season'

Nov 12 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BILLY Reid will use the international break to put his Hamilton squad through another ‘mini pre-season’ programme.

The New Douglas Park gaffer put the players through a similar schedule last month and since then Accies have drawn with Dundee United, been narrowly defeated by Celtic, dumped St Mirren and came within three minutes of beating derby rivals Motherwell.

Results have improved in recent weeks, and so have performances and Hamilton’s team spirit – something that isn’t lost on Reid.

He said: “We’ve got a free weekend but we’ve got a schedule worked out. We’re going to work really hard this week and they’re going to be put through their paces again in a mini pre-season like we did last month, which worked for us.

“We’ll have three days off at the weekend and I’ll let the players go and recover from it. But I’m happy in terms of where we are now compared to at the start of the season.”

Reid admitted to having mixed emotions about Saturday’s 2-2 derby draw with Motherwell, which saw Simon Mensing and Marco Paixao put Hamilton ahead twice, even though they were down to 10 men for 60 minutes following Guillaume Beuzelin’s red card.

He said: “We’re frustrated because, in terms of the endeavour and what we put into the game, playing for so long with 10 men and going ahead twice, it’s disappointing that we didn’t see out the game.

“I can’t fault anything; we put so much into the game and worked so hard.

“There was nothing we could do about their first goal, but we just switched off a wee bit at the second.

“We went two for two at the back and it’s easy to say just go with a back three and shut up shop but we didn’t do that and kept three up the park, which is probably unusual for a team down to 10 men. I felt that we had a goal in us and I was proved right.

“But I have to look at my own performance. I toyed with the idea of putting David Elebert on for Grant Evans just before Motherwell’s second goal, I didn’t call it, and I probably should have.”

Reid added: “For the neutral it was some game and I think the Hamilton supporters could see the effort and endeavour that I demand of the players.

“I’ve told the players that they’ve come a long way since the start of the season, that’s the spirit we demand at the club and if they keep putting in performances like that we’ll be fine – and they have been for the last five or six weeks.

“We’ve been working hard and we’re now looking more of a goal threat than we’ve done since we’ve come into the Premier League.

“We’ve got two strikers in Mickael Antoine-Curier and Marco Paixao who look as if they’re going to score goals.”