Skipper Alex Neil admits Accies were effectively relegated months ago

May 12 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

ALEX Neil couldn’t prevent Hamilton from being relegated after crashing to defeat at McDiarmid Park on Tuesday, but admitted his side effectively took the drop MONTHS ago.

And the dejected skipper promised to try and repay fans by helping Accies bounce back to the SPL at the first time of asking.

After a promising fortnight that left Accies with real hope of staying up it all went pear-shaped when defender Mark McLaughlin was red-carded for denying Andy Jackson a clear goal-scoring opportunity and Liam Craig netted from the spot after 29 minutes.

Although Tomas Cerny brilliantly saved a second Craig penalty after Simon Mensing tripped Peter MacDonald inside the box, Gareth Wardlaw earned St Mirren a 1-0 win against Aberdeen at Pittodrie that put the Paisley side six points clear with just three to play for.

Following the rain-lashed defeat in Perth, Neil said: “We didn’t get relegated today – we’ve been relegated because of our performances in the first six or seven months of the season when we weren’t good enough, didn’t score enough goals, didn’t defend well enough and at the end of the day we just didn’t win enough games.

“I think we’ve showed character over the last five or six weeks and we’ve certainly proved that we can compete at this level.

“Hopefully we can have a decent squad next season and if we can compete at this level then we should be more than good enough to put up a challenge in the First Division.

“I’ve been here for six years now and Hamilton is my club, but at times like these that you feel sorry for the fans.

“It has been a difficult season and my heart goes out to them because they’ll be here long after I’ve gone and long after anybody else that’s here is gone. We just want to say to them that we’ll try to do our best next year and make up for it.”

On the game Neil said: “The first half was really disappointing and I was really disappointed with my own performance in the first 45 – it wasn’t good enough at all.

“We did well in the second half but it’s been the story of our season that it’s too little, too late.

“It’s all right doing well in the second half when you’re down to 10 men, but the game is already pretty much gone by then.”

Despite dropping down to the First Division, Neil feels that Accies can be optimistic about the future.

He said: “We could have a strong squad and a number of youngsters like Ali Crawford and Grant Gillespie are coming through as well, so if they keep progressing we can have a bright future.

“I know we’re going down but we’ve always got to look forward and the next step has to be to try and make a challenge next season and come back up.”

ST JOHNSTONE: Enckelman, Mackay, Maybury (Invincibile, 75), Anderson, Duberry, Davidson, Adams (Reynolds, 84), Millar, Craig, Jackson (May, 75), MacDonald. Subs (not used): Smith, Taylor, Robertson, Durnan.

HAMILTON: Cerny, McLaughlin, Neil, Mensing, Buchanan (Elebert, 37), McDonald, Crawford (Chambers, 79), Routledge (Gillespie, 90), Imrie, Hassselbaink, McAlister. Subs (not used): Murdoch, Kilday, Elliot, Antoine-Curier.

Sent off: McLaughlin.

Booked: Imrie.

Referee: Steve Conroy.

Attendance: 2253.