Arctic conditions hit Accies' fixture at St Johnstone

Dec 2 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON’S bid to lift themselves off the bottom of the SPL this weekend could be put on ice after St Johnstone’s McDiarmid Park was buried under heavy snowfall.

Accies are due to face the Perth side on Saturday as they try to climb away from the relegation trapdoor but, after Scotland was battered by blizzards this week, the snow is unlikely to clear in time.

At the time of going to press, the McDiarmid Park’s car park and pitch were under eight inches of snow, according to St Johnstone’s official website.

Even if the pitch is cleared in time for Saturday’s clash, travelling to Perth has been perilous throughout the week due to the snowfall, and that scenario is unlikely to change sufficiently by the weekend to enable safe travel.

Hamilton boss Billy Reid won’t be taking anything for granted, however, and will prepare his side as best he can, should the game be given the green light.

Fortunately Hamilton have use of the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility, which provides indoor pitches, but getting to the Motherwell complex has proved to be a problem.

Reid said: “I can’t see how the game would be going ahead on Saturday but we’re preparing for it anyway and in the right manner.

“We’re trying to train indoors but some haven’t made it in.

“We had a full squad in on Tuesday but it was a bit topsy-turvy on Wednesday.

“Whatever happens we’ll meet head-on.

“Snow makes it difficult but we’re lucky that we have the indoor facility, although it means we need to tone it down a bit in training.

“But we’re the same as anybody else, we’re all in the same boat, and we hope that the game goes ahead.”

Meanwhile Reid was disappointed to only draw last Saturday’s SPL clash against St Mirren at New Douglas Park.

Reid said: “We should have won that game, I thought we did enough, and I think 1-0 or 2-0 was the correct score.

“It’s the old saying that ‘goals win games’ and if we had scored we would have won the game.

“We had a great chance through Flavio Paixao but didn’t score it and that’s just the way things are going for us.

“We didn’t create a lot of chances but I thought we were the better football team, by far.

“I thought we dominated most of the game except for a wee spell in the second half when they had a disallowed goal, but, in the main, we controlled the game, passed it well, and when you get chances like we did you’ve got to take them.

“I think we all know that it’s two points dropped – you can’t miss chances like that at this level and I don’t want to have a go at him, but the bottom line is that’s why they’re paid the money they are and Flavio has to score.

“That goal would have changed the whole complexion of the game, we would have been on the front foot, and I think we would have gone on to win.”

An aspect that dominated last weekend’s phone-ins and internet forums was the strike by Scotland’s grade one referees, which prompted the SFA to bring in foreign referees.

Israeli Meir Levy officiated Hamilton’s match against St Mirren, and while Reid wouldn’t be drawn on the issue, he felt the visiting official did well.

He said: “I’m fed up talking about it (the referees strike) to be honest, it happened for whatever reasons, but I think people have got to calm down and I’ve said that all along.

“The referee who came in did well and had no problems, but it was an easy game to referee.

“I hardly noticed him throughout the game, so great credit to him, he was smashing.”

Should Saturday’s game go ahead, Accies will be without midfielder Jon Routledge, who underwent a scan last week, while captain Alex Neil is expected to be out for another two weeks.

Defender Mark McLaughlin, who picked up a groin strain ahead of the clash against Inverness, is back in training and may feature.