Dougie lays it on thick for kids
DOUGIE IMRIE insists the innocence of youth can no longer be held up as an excuse for Hamilton’s growing pains.
The Accies midfielder believes this afternoon’s Lanarkshire derby is the chance for his side to come of age and bring some much-needed festive cheer to the home support.
Martin Canning’s men sit four points behind their neighbours in 10th spot and Imrie didn’t mince his words when spelling out the importance of this fixture.
He said: “We have some inexperienced players in the side this season and that has made life a bit difficult.
“This is the Premiership so now is the time to stand up and be counted.
“We can’t keep using inexperience as an excuse. We brought in a lot of new players in the summer but they should also have been getting used to the league so everybody needs to show they can handle it.”
The 35-year-old also admits the secret to pulling themselves clear of relegation trouble lies in gaining a level of consistency which has so far BY GORDON PARKS proved frustratingly elusive in this campaign.
But Imrie reckons the squad is more than capable of steering the club towards Premiership survival.
He said: “I don’t know what the manager has planned for the January window but as a squad we should be strong enough. “It’s up to him to determine what’s required but we have a good enough squad to pick up the results we need to stay in the league again for another year.
“It’s going to be difficult and we know we need to start scoring goals as that has been the major problem for us so far this season.
“The last few weeks, the results have been pretty close but we need to start grinding them out.
“Momentum is the key and the biggest problem over the last few seasons has been the lack of consistency. The gaffer keeps talking to us about it as we can never seem to manage to achieve four or five wins in a row. We want to finish on a high before the break.”
DOUGIE IMRIE