I had to stop Shearer and Henry but I’ll face a harder task keeping Hamilton up
HAMILTON MATT UP AGAINST IT
MATT KILGALLON was thrown in at the deep end as a kid at Leeds and asked to mark some of the biggest names in the game.
But the Hamilton stopper reckons he’ll face the toughest test of his career just trying to keep Accies in the top flight this season.
Kilgallon was just 17 when he was pitched in to face superstars such as Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, Robbie Keane, Nicolas BY EWING GRAHAME Anelka and Jermain Defoe while still learning to shave. As his career progressed he pitted his wits against Teddy Sheringham, Theo Walcott and Wayne Rooney. The former West Ham, Sunderland, Sheffield United, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Blackburn and Bradford defender hit a personal landmark at the weekend with his 400th first-team start but Motherwell’s 2-1 win took the gloss off that. Kilgallon, now 34, said: “I’ve been at some good clubs with competition from some good centre-halves so I can be proud of that. “You don’t know how many you’ll get so to still be kicking on at 34 is another thing to be proud of.
“After a loss you wonder how many more games you’ve got left in you but after a win you feel as though you could play for another 200!”
Kilgallon hits another milestone with his birthday next Tuesday and admits fighting his first relegation battle at that advanced age has taken him aback.
He said: “I’ve mainly tried to get out of leagues rather than stay in them so this is all new to me.
“I’ve had the pressure of not being able to afford to lose games at the top – now it’s at the bottom. It’s the worry of not being able to make a mistake in case a goal goes in. It’s a weird one and we’re not doing too well.
“We’ve been lucky that the teams below us, St Mirren and Dundee, haven’t won or we’d be even closer to the bottom.
“We’ve only picked up one point from the last six games and it’s nowhere near enough. The Motherwel game was an opportunity because we were low on confidence and went 1-0 up.
“But they scored two and we let them back in. There were a few words said at full-time but we’ll have to move on. There’s still a long way to go”
Kilgallon hopes the winter break will give his team-mates the time to do some much-needed soul searching and allow them to pull off a great escape.
He said: “Having the time off, this is when the lads must take a look at themselves. Hopefully we’ll also bring a few new players in.
“Some people might think football in the Premiership is easy and that they’re just coming for a pay day but you need to the right character for starters if you’re coming up here from England.
“Hamilton isn’t the best-known club down there but it’s well run and has a good feel. They give people opportunities and let them play.
“They might though have to spend a bit more money for the player who can score you that goal out of nothing because that’s what we need. Nothing is falling for us right now.
“It’ll be 100 miles per hour in training but that’s how it should be. You can’t make excuses. You need to make your own luck, work hard.
“We need a lucky break. James Keatings hit a free-kick on Saturday which clipped the wall but spun the wrong side of the post – it was like one of my golf shots!”