Simon Mensing aims to see first-footers Motherwell leave New Douglas Park with nothing on New Year’s Day.

Dec 30 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

SIMON MENSING hopes Hamilton will start the New Year with a bang and spoil Motherwell’s party.

The Steelmen first-foot New Douglas Park on Saturday afternoon looking to gain revenge for Accies’ 1-0 derby win back in October, but Mensing is in no mood to offer Well a warm welcome.

The 28-year-old said: “On New Year’s Day, we’ve got Motherwell here, it’s on BBC Alba and that’s even better for us all.

“We’re certainly looking forward to it. It’s a home game, it’s a derby and, come Saturday, fingers crossed we can start the New Year with a bang.

“We want to win every game, obviously, but when it’s a derby, you certainly don’t want to be second-best – and the fans will be thinking that too.”

Scotland appears to be coming out of the worst winters in recent history, but that has taken its toll with FIVE matches to re-arrange.

Before yesterday’s clash with Aberdeen, Hamilton hadn’t played since drawing 0-0 with St Mirren on November 27 and Mensing admits that was a difficult period to get through.

He said: “It’s frustrating because you train hard all week and you’re looking forward to the game on a Saturday.

“Hopefully, we can get some games now. There is going to be a fixture backlog, that’s inevitable now, but I don’t think the boys will be complaining if all the games go ahead in such a short space of time, because we just want to play football and pick up some points.

“It’s out of our hands, all we can do is prepare correctly and get through it, but at the moment we just want to be playing football, so fingers crossed that games now go ahead.”