Accies pay the ultimate penalty as spot-kick dooms them to relegation

May 12 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HEARTBROKEN Hamilton boss Billy Reid has challenged his Accies side to bounce back into the SPL at the first attempt.

A spirited fightback in recent weeks nearly gave Hamilton a chance to claw back a 12-point deficit and survive for a fourth term in the top flight.

But those hopes came crashing down round about them on a rain-soaked Tuesday evening.

With St Johnstone already leading through a Liam Craig penalty in an incident that saw influential defender Mark McLaughlin red-carded, Gareth Wardlaw grabbed a priceless winner against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, moving the Paisley side six points clear with just one match remaining.

That brought to a shuddering halt a wretched season which sees Accies slip into the First Division.

A clearly-frustrated Reid said afterwards: “We don’t want to be in the First Division, we want to be in the Premier League – however, it has been a great journey in the last three years and I hope the fans have appreciated that.

“When the players have pulled on an Accies jersey they’ve given us everything, but if we give penalties away and go down to 10 men there’s not a lot I can do, and we’ve done that continually this season.

“We gave ourselves a fighting chance but we knew it was going to be difficult to go to St Johnstone and win – their pitch isn’t great, it was always going to be a battle, and they have an aerial threat all over the park.

“But the game summed up our season – we opened by giving away three penalties against Aberdeen at Pittodrie and it has ended with us conceding two penalties at St Johnstone and getting a man sent off.

“It’s really difficult to win football matches when you continually do that – we’ve given away 15 penalties this season and Tomas must be sick of facing them, although he’s saved four.

Despite dropping down to the First Division, however, Reid is optimistic about the way ahead.

“The aim will be to come straight back up,” he said, “but we realise that it’s never easy in the First Division.

“What it will allow me to do though is bring my young players through and that’s the only way this club will survive.

“Sometimes you need to take a step back to bring your players through again and we’re starting to see them.

“We’ve reared guys like Ali Crawford, who, in the last 10 games, has started to look like a diamond, and Grant Gillespie has played 15 times, while Ziggy Gordon, Lee Kilday, David Hopkirk and others have played. Jordan Kirkpatrick will come back from his loan and play a part.

“We’ve got Tomas Cerny, Simon Mensing, Mark McLaughlin, Jim McAlister, our captain Alex Neil, Dougie Imrie, James Chambers and Martin Canning – who is to come back from his operation – all under contract, so there are a lot of things to be positive about.”

Accies final top-flight fixture is against Inverness at New Douglas Park on Saturday. Reid said: “We want to finish with a win in the SPL, and I want to win a game in front of our own fans.”