Show no fear, says Accies boss as make or break fixtures revealed
Brian Rice has called on his Hamilton players to go into the Premiership split without fear after the final five fixtures of the season were revealed.
Accies are currently bottom of the table, just a point behind Kilmarnock and two adrift of Ross County in 10th, and now know what lies ahead in their bid to beat the drop.
Rice is delighted to have been handed two home games against Dundee United and derby rivals Motherwell to start off, while away clashes with St Mirren and County follow ahead of hosting a potential final day showdown with Killie on Sunday, May 16.
While Accies may be used to the survival dogfight, Rice insists it is no advantage going into the business end of the campaign and reckons there are plenty of players in his current squad who haven’t be through the relegation wringer.
He said:“if you look at our team now, there’s a lot of players who haven’t been through it all before - some of the younger ones, even some of the older ones - so the past doesn’t matter.
“These other teams will have players who have been in this situation before as well.
“Kilmarnock have got Aaron Mcgowan who has been through it before with us.
“But it’s about the present and making sure you are ready for it.
“Don’t be scared of it, go and try and win the games, and that’s what we’ll be trying to do.
“We’ve been handed two home games to start with, so we couldn’t ask for any more than that.
“If it comes to the last game we are at home as well and if it is going to come down to a one-off game then, ideally, you want to be at home.
“The last seven or eight games we’ve been right in games.
“We’ve been in there battling away, we’ve fallen behind and fought back, so that shows me the boys will fight until the final whistle, as they did on Saturday [in a 1-1 draw with St Mirren] when we were still
going strong right to the end.”
The final Lanarkshire derby of the season will take place on a midweek, with Accies hosting the Steelmen on Wednesday, April 21.
And Rice was relieved to avoid St Mirren in the first round of post-split fixtures on April 10, having just played Jim Goodwin’s men and preparing to host them in the Scottish Cup third round on April 3.
He added:“if we’d ended up with three games on the bounce against St Mirren it wouldn’t have been great for both sets of players or management, but it’s not worked out like that thankfully.
“For the derby, if the fans had been there then, of course, we’d have loved to have the derby on a Saturday and I’m sure Motherwell would as well.
“But I don’t think it makes that much of a difference with no crowds allowed.
“A derby match is a derby match no matter when you play it.”
As things currently stand in the table, Accies could face a colossal final few days to preserve their Premiership status with Ross County and Kilmarnock – their two nearest rivals at present – the opponents in the last two games.