PLAY-OFF FINAL, FIRST LEG: DUNDEE UTD HAMILTON
MARTIN Canning has spent much of this season bemoaning his Hamilton’s side’s lack of good fortune and lady luck once again has shown herself to be no fan of the Accies.
Captain Michael Devlin is out of tomorrow night’s first-leg playoff match against Dundee United at Tannadice after a scan revealed a cruciate injury.
But he was suspended for the return game on Sunday in any case.
His usual defensive partner Georgios Sarris is also struggling which leaves the Premiership side in a spot of bother.
Not that they weren’t already in one given where they find themselves.
Devlin is arguably Canning’s best player and while Sarris has had his struggles this season, he is an experienced player and the Hamilton manager would much rather go with his tried and tested central defensive pairing rather than a couple of kids.
The 23-year-old had to come off in the first half of Saturday’s 4-0 win over Dundee at the SuperSeal Stadium which was last night diagnosed as a cruciate injury that could mean a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Canning said: “He has been hobbling about on crutches. He was out for Sunday, he was suspended and was going to miss it regardless. Hopefully we can get Georgios Sarris back for Thursday so it will be like-for-like.
“When it happened against Ross County and they were both out, we’ve got young Shaun Want and Craig Watson, who can both play centre-back and are both good young players Michael has been fantastic for us but it’s an opportunity for somebody else. I’ve continually said throughout the season it’s somebody else’s opportunity to come in and go and do well.”
THERE is an argument to be made that Dundee United are slight favourites. What can be said is there won’t be much between the teams, although with Hamilton going to be without their captain, the smart money might be on the men from the Championship.
The last team, indeed the only one, to win the play-offs from the second tier are Hamilton. Canning was in the team which beat Hibernian at Easter
VRoad on an incredible day. He said: “The play-offs were my finest moment as a player. We lost the first leg 2-0 but went to Hibs and won on penalties. “So it was a fantastic achievement for the club to get up and it was a day we’ll never forget. “Now we’ve got to go through it again. It’s different in terms of we’re the team in the Premiership but we’ve got to make sure we maintain that status. “We were the underdogs but we believed we could win. In the first game I thought we were the better teame but lost two goals. “Even though we were two down we believed in the second game if we go the first goal, as 2-0 is a funny score- line, and got it back to 2-1 it was game on. We were able to do it and we scored the second one in the 93rd minute, so that was a bit of fortune and a bit of fate.
“But we believed and that’s the biggest thing in these games, if you believe you’re the team that’s going to come out on top there is every chance you will.”
This was always going to be a difficult first full season in charge for Canning. Perhaps the best anyone at the club could have hoped for is eleventh place. They at least have a chance to stay up.
Canning said: “There is so much at stake in these games. Obviously going up to Tannadice it will be a difficult game.
“We’ve got to make sure we compete as they are in good form and doing well, so we know it’s a challenge. But we’ll take belief and confidence in to it after Saturday’s result and believe we can go and compete.”