TAKE THE SIGH ROAD
Scott fired up to avoid another girm trip home from up north
SCOTT McMANN reckons today’s clash with Ross County is Hamilton’s biggest game since their nerve-shredding play-off with Dundee United.
And he’s desperate to avoid the misery of another painful bus journey back home from the Highlands.
Just five months ago Accies were staring down the barrel of relegation, 90 minutes away from dropping down to the Championship as they prepared for the second leg of the play-off final.
But Martin Canning’s side held their nerve and Greg Docherty’s goal was enough to preserve their top-flight status.
Hamilton then got off to a promising start this term – but have taken just one point from their last six games.
Full-back McMann insists they need to stop the rot against one of the other clubs he expects to be battling against the drop.
And the 21-year-old is refusing to contemplate a long trip back from Dingwall on the end of another defeat.
He said: “Last season we lost up there and also at Inverness Caley Thistle. It’s a depressing four-hour journey, it’s horrible.
“For the first couple of hours – until everyone has calmed down a little – nobody on the bus even speaks.
“They’ll be desperate to get a first home victory for Owen Coyle but we’re desperate not to have a repeat of that long-haul misery. We’re going there for the win.
“It’s a massive game but it’s one we think we can win.
“We haven’t been getting the results we’ve wanted recently but we haven’t been playing poorly – we just haven’t caught the breaks at the right times.
“I’d have said last Saturday’s game against Motherwell was the biggest game since the play-off final against Dundee United but, after losing that, the one against Ross County is even more important now.
“The pressure is on us to get the win. Then we have Partick Thistle at home and Dundee away so this is a huge week for us because these are the teams we expect to take points from.
“We expect to take points off every team apart from Celtic but it’s vital we get some positive results from these three games because we have a really tough run coming after them.”
Accies fans thought they had left battles at the bottom behind them when their side climbed to fourth after a 3-1 win at Easter Road was followed by a 3-0 thrashing of Dundee.
Now they’ve slumped to ninth – just a point above the dropzone – but McMann admits they always knew what this campaign held in store for them.
He said: “We were under no illusions after beating Hibs that we were going to stay up at that end of the table and finish in the top three or four.
“But there are certainly games in that run of five defeats when we should have taken some points and we didn’t so it’s vital that we put that right.
“There is a common theme because we’re doing most things really well but then slipping up at key moments during games.
“It should be easy to fix because, when it’s down to individual errors, it’s just a case of don’t make those mistakes and don’t cause those problems. That’s easier said than done of course.”
This is Hamilton’s fourth successive season in the top flight and, having escaped in previous years, McMann isn’t prepared to panic just yet.
He said: “I’m not saying we should be relaxed about our situation but we’re not too concerned about it.
“We have a lot of injuries at the moment but feel we have enough in the dressing room to put some points on the board.
“No one here is panicking because we’ve been through this before and come out the other side.
“It may be new for other clubs but we’ll just concentrate on ourselves and what we’re doing.”