Derby day top priority for Devlin
BORN and bred in Motherwell, now captain of Hamilton, Mikey Devlin is acutely aware of what will be at stake when the two Lanarkshire rivals meet at Fir Park tonight.
There’s no point trotting out all the usual cliches about it being just another three points. Nor is there any great merit in looking at a league table which, at the bottom end, has more permutations than a backstreet bookies’ Yankee Bet.
Failure to grasp what it is really all about is to insult the people who form the life and soul of both clubs. Nights like these are stand-alone occasions in which everything else becomes nothing more than an irrelevance.
Despite both clubs facing a battle to avoid relegation, Devlin has vowed to put that aside for 90 minutes and concentrate instead on just clinching a victory that would secure local bragging rights for an Accies support who continue to protest against manager Martin Canning.
‘A win would be massive for us,’ said Devlin, whose side climbed off the bottom of the table after a 1-0 triumph over St Johnstone last Saturday.
‘It is a derby — the fans want the win, the players want the win and the manager wants the win. You can feel it around the whole club. These games are different.
‘Forget what that does for you in the league. It is a big game in its own right and we need to make sure we do it justice.’
Hamilton’s incentive tonight will be two-fold: victory would not only see them leapfrog Motherwell in the table, but would simultaneously dump their rivals into the relegation play-off spot.
Devlin, however, is not expecting anything to be settled just yet.
‘It’s so tight at the bottom and it’s looking like it could go right down to the last kick of the last game,’ he said.
‘I suppose that makes for an exciting end of the season. But we don’t want to be part of it. We got a good victory on Saturday and we want to follow it up back-to-back.
‘Just look at Partick Thistle. They are a great example of what a few wins can do for you. They have been flying recently.
‘If we manage to put a run of three or four victories together, that could be enough to secure our Premiership status for another year.’
Meanwhile, Motherwell midfielder Chris Cadden believes attack may be the best form of defence in his side’s battle to avoid the drop.
Manager Stephen Robinson deployed a bold 3-4-3 formation in the 1-1 draw at Ibrox last Saturday, with only a man-of-the-match performance from Rangers goalkeeper Wes Foderingham denying the visitors victory.
‘Saturday’s result was massive for us,’ said Cadden.
‘It speaks volumes for the team that we actually left a place like Ibrox bitterly disappointed not to have taken the three points.
‘The fact the Rangers keeper was man of the match says a lot about our performance and is something we can take a lot of pride in.
‘We played with three up front and really had a go.
‘The thinking behind the gaffer’s decision was: “What’s the point in just sitting in? Let’s take the game to them”.
‘We got in their faces. We even had Elliott Frear and myself playing as wing-backs and were more attackminded, so credit to the gaffer for making that call because it worked.
‘Louis Moult and Scott McDonald are two of the best strikers in the league.
‘On their day, nobody can handle them.
‘We’re at our best on the front foot and it’s something we’ll look to use against Hamilton because it’s going to be like a cup final.’