Accies lay-off worry
‘Unfortunate’ break before facing Rangers
Hamilton boss Brian Rice admits it’s “really unfortunate” that they face a lengthy lay- off before facing Rangers after their clash with St Mirren was called off.
The clash was postponed with the Paisley side only able to field 11 registered players following a Covid outbreak at the club.
With an SPFL investigation underway into the cancellation, Accies will miss out on any matchday action for almost three weeks before their trip to Ibrox.
Frustrated boss Rice said: “We’re disappointed because we were looking forward to the game.
“The Covid situation put paid to that and there isn’t much we could do about that, we just need to abide by the decisions.
“It’s really frustrating because you prepare for the game all week, and it wasn’t until 5.30pm on the Friday night that I got a call saying that the game was off.
“The players know the team and they know who the substitutes are, but this is just the way things are right now.
“It’s taken out of the hands of football people and it sits with the medical experts, but it’s a game we thought we could go and win.
“We’ve had a really tough set of fixtures with Hibs and Aberdeen away, even though we had St Johnstone at home. We have Rangers away and Dundee United away, and now probably the postponed St Mirren away game; all away games.
“It was a really important game for us before we go to Rangers and Dundee United but we can’t do anything about it.”
He added: “We’ll go into Rangers and we won’t have played since October 20 right through to November 8.
“It’s a long spell, and it’s really unfortunate, but we just need to play bounce games amongst ourselves.
“It’s impossible to arrange a friendly match. It doesn’t make life easy having this gap but our hands are tied unfortunately.”
Gaffer Rice had hoped to organise a friendly clash with St Johnstone this weekend but Callum Davidson’s side knocked back the offer.
“There is only us, St Mirren and St Johnstone this weekend who are off with the cup ties,” he added.
“St Mirren obviously can’t play but I tried to get a game against St Johnstone but they didn’t want to play.
“We are limited with who we can play as well because we can only play the Premiership teams, because they are the only teams that are getting tested.”