Mullin: Campaign not good enough
HAMILTON ACCIES ................................ 0 RAITH ROVERS ....................................... 2
Josh Mullin admits Hamilton Accies finishing outside the top half of the Championship simply isn’t good enough.
The Livingston loanee joined the club last summer with the hope of helping them seal a return straight back to the Scottish Premiership.
But that hasn’t gone according to plan with the South Lanarkshire side knowing the best they can now finish is sixth in the table, following a lacklustre 2-0 defeat at home to promotion hopefuls Raith Rovers on Saturday.
A goal in either half from Ben Williamson saw the Kirkcaldy men run out comfortable winners at New Douglas Park, with Accies 10 points adrift of the play-off spots with one game to go.
And Mullin wasn’t happy with the display as they suffered a 13th defeat of the season ahead of Friday’s final match of the campaign away to Inverness.
He said: “I’m not going to stand here and make excuses.
“We just weren’t good enough. Raith looked like a team who had something to play for and we just went through the motions at times.
“We looked like a team that was safe. But, to be honest, I don’t even like standing here saying “oh we are safe”, because I don’t think it’s good enough.
“But, realistically, that’s where we are at this moment in time and we need to look at ourselves going into the last game of the season to try and finish on a positive note, so we can get a bounce going into next season.”
Asked if they had underachieved having been a Premiership side last season, the 29-year-old added: “I think that’s it. I think the quality is there and that’s why I came here, looking at the squad and what we had.
“But I don’t think where we finish is down to a lack of trying or the way we’ve played football.
“I just think it’s been things like switching off in games.
“Everybody knows we’ve dropped a lot of points late on. It’s sad, it’s disappointing but it’s not through a lack of effort from the boys.
“It would have been nicer to finish higher up the table.”
One of the few positives from the weekend was a debut for 16-year-old defender Sam Nicolson and another first team outing for 17-year-old winger Adam Mcgowan.
The duo both made late cameos and Mullin reckons the youngsters Sam are capable of playing a big part in the club’s promotion push next season.
Mcgowan has already shown promise with six first team appearances and a goal in Accies’ 2-0 win over Aberdeen U20s in the Challenge Cup back in October.
Mullin added: “I’d like to think they can be a part of things next season. They certainly didn’t look out of place.
“Big Sam has got a great presence and the manager will probably want to get him in more to work with him in terms of what he’s looking for positionally, things like that.
“Set-pieces are a massive part of football and so if he can give us that presence and aggression then I don’t see why not.
“Gowser got on as well for another game and I thought he was sharp when he came on. That’s the way Hamilton Accies are. They want to bring the young boys through so we’ll see.
“I think next season we need just a wee bit more experience as well.
“That’s not down to lack of trying or lack of information from the manager.
“We work hard in training, we are in most days, and the manager has been brilliant with individuals, letting them know what he wants from them and what he needs.
“So I think it might be a case of taking a wee bit of time, refresh, regroup and go again in the summer.”