Reid urges players to get back to winning ways

May 19 2011 by Andy McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON boss Billy Reid has already set his sights on next season's First Division championship - but warned his players need to learn to adopt a winning mentality.

Having taken Accies up to the SPL four seasons ago Reid knows the First Division isn't going to be easy and any chance his side have of doing well will depend on how hard they work.

He said: "We've got four weeks to go and we're back in training and I'm excited about that - I'm bursting to go again.

"I'm really excited about next season but if we think we're going to go down there and just turn up and walk through the league we're going to be in trouble because that's not going to happen.

"We need to get a winning mentality. It's all right playing good football but we've got to win games and this season has been crazy.

"There were things happening that I can't do anything about, like giving penalties away and having guys sent off, and dominating but not putting games to bed - that has got to stop."

Rebuilding work has started already at New Douglas Park, with David Buchanan, Mark Carrington, David Elebert, Tom Elliott, Grant Evans, James Gibson, Andy Graham, Gary McDonald, Sean Murdoch and Gavin Skelton all told before Saturday's finale against Inverness that they wouldn't be offered new contracts.

First-team coach Stuart Taylor and sports scientist Ross Hughes were also told they would be leaving the club, while Aaron Wildig has returned to Cardiff City following his loan spell.

From the under-19s Darren Donal, Andy Kennedy, Jordan McCue, Reece McGillion and Scott Pittman have also been released.

As Accies need to cut their playing staff by nearly 50 per cent to around 25 or 26 for next season it's likely that more will follow in the coming weeks.

Reid said: "Things have got to move on, decisions have got to be made and budgets have got to be cut because we're going down to the First Division.

"There are a few players leaving who would certainly do a job for us, but we can't afford to hang onto them.

"But the ethos of this club is to nurture our own young players and that's what we're going to do.

"Lee Kilday, Ali Crawford, Kieran Millar, Connor McGlinchey and David Hopkirk were all involved on Saturday against Inverness and showed a bit of promise, and there are more, such as Ziggy Gordon, who has just returned from Scotland duty. Others will feature too.

"I'm really excited about the younger players next season because we've got a really good group, but you need experience round about them.

"We have a number of experienced professionals here, with Martin Canning and Mark McLaughlin to go back in, and we've got Alex Neil, Simon Mensing, Tomas Cerny and Dougie Imrie still here.

"Young guys are going to make mistakes early on and they have to be given the chance to learn from that - but if they do it in the Premier League we just get punished.

"If you ask your players to get on the ball and play they'll make mistakes at times, and I don't have a problem with that.

"The only way this club can survive is to bring our own players through and I hope the fans realise that and get behind them.

"We've had some really good times at this football club, probably the best in most people's lifetimes, and if we stick together and get behind this young group of players then we can do well."