Hamilton Accies gaffer eyeing up double squad boost

Jan 21 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON boss Billy Reid intends to add at least two new players before the January transfer window slams shut.

Reid has moved to secure striker Mickael Antoine-Curier’s loan from Dundee until the end of the season and has brought in midfielder Stuart Elliott and defender David van Zanten this month, but wants to add to his squad.

However, Reid reiterated that he won’t bring people in just to make up the numbers.

He said: “We’ve been looking to add one or two, maybe two or three, but it’s not just quite as easy when finances dictate things and I don’t think there’s any point in bringing people in that aren’t going to help us.

“But I’m hopeful that we will add one or two.”

Following their marathon spell of four games in nine days – three of which were against SPL champions Rangers – Accies would be forgiven for running on empty.

But Reid insists they will be ready for another hectic week that sees a visit to face Hibs at Easter Road on Saturday before Kilmarnock come calling on Tuesday and Celtic make the trip to New Douglas Park the following weekend.

Following Tuesday’s 2-0 extra-time defeat by Rangers at Ibrox in the Active Nation Scottish Cup fourth round, Reid said: “They’ll go again, and recovery is so important – we work hard at it.

“Having a schedule like this is easy for me because we don’t need training with this run of games.

“It’s been tough and I don’t think we’ve maybe got what we deserved from the last four games, but we’ll bounce back, that’s for sure.”

Reid admitted the better team won in Tuesday’s clash as an extra-time Steven Whittaker double took Rangers through to a fifth-round tie at St Mirren.

Reid said: “We worked hard to try and keep Rangers at bay but you could see that tiredness was starting to creep in and extra-time was really difficult for the players.

“I’ve got no complaints at all, they gave me everything and I think, over the three games against Rangers, we’ve acquitted ourselves fairly well – but the best team won on Tuesday.

“I think we’ve progressed quite a bit in the last few years; we’ve taken a few thumpings at Ibrox, so to hold Rangers for 90 minutes is progress, but we’ve got to build on that.”

Reid had a totally different view on Saturday’s 1-0 SPL defeat at home to Rangers.

Hamilton created a number of chances, with Mickael Antoine-Curier, Marco Paixao and Simon Mensing all going close, but were undone by a late Nacho Novo strike.

He said: “You don’t always get what you deserve from football and it was a sore one, but the most important thing is that we stick together.

“We’ve had a couple of defeats in a row at home, we haven’t scored and that’s frustrating, because of the amount of chances we’ve created.

“There are positives, in that we controlled the game, we were the better team by a considerable distance but, once again, people were talking about how poor Rangers were – it’s becoming a habit for us that teams we play against are looked upon in that way.”

Last Wednesday Hamilton slumped to a 1-0 home defeat against Dundee United and on that occasion Reid held up his hands to the Tannadice team.

Hamilton have enjoyed a favourable record against the Taysiders, but simply looked jaded on the night.

Reid said: “We were fortunate to go in at half-time 0-0, although there wasn’t much in the game.

“That’s probably the worst we’ve played against Dundee United since we’ve come into the SPL. Over the 90 minutes, they were the better team.”

Hamilton last week released fringe men Kevin Welsh and Leon Knight, who has signed a deal until the end of the season at First Division side Queen of the South.

Meanwhile, with both sides now out of the Scottish Cup, Saturday, February 6 has been identified as a possible date for the rearranged derby match between Hamilton and Motherwell at Fir Park, which was postponed on January 2.