Tenacious Accies give Easton hope for future
FOR the brave souls who ventured out to watch this encounter, it became clear Hamilton are not intimidated by the fear factor.
Indeed, that’s the message Brian Rice and his players are trying to put across. Even when the football on show is painful to watch at times, the underdogs battle for every point.
Always look on the bright side of life? Goodness, it was difficult to pick a positive from a match in which Livingston just about shaded possession in front of 1,076 fans, the second-lowest Premiership attendance of the season after one less supporter turned up for the reverse fixture in September.
Accies, for their part, stood strong to take something back to Lanarkshire ahead of a daunting clash at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.
Captain Brian Easton admires the bravery and belief of his teammates, particularly the youngsters. A trip to Livingston is not the easiest of shifts but Hamilton escaped the Lions’ den intact.
And that extra bite they have could be the difference between cementing their place in the top flight for another season and avoiding a predictable relegation scrap.
‘It’s one thing I’ve noticed here,’ said Easton (below). ‘Even though we have a young group of boys, they don’t seem to have that fear — maybe it’s a bit of naivety or whatever. They go into every game with optimism and looking to win.
‘We played against Rangers last week (a 3-1 defeat). We were looking for the three points and we’ll do the same against Celtic on Wednesday. But, as the game went on here, we were thinking a point would be a good result.
‘We knew we were in for a tough game and our aim was to pick up three points. But, as the game went on, we found ourselves under pressure, so coming away with a clean sheet and a point is good.’
Hamilton’s on-loan Reading keeper Luke Southwood produced a couple of important saves to deny Gary Holt’s men, while Livvy defender Jon Guthrie’s header hit the inside of the post in the first half.
Accies, now without a win in eight games, will have to be as tough again in defence and improve drastically in attack if they are to come close to causing an upset at Parkhead.
Much like his manager, Easton believes the team must be positive.
‘If you go to Celtic Park or Ibrox just hoping not to get beaten and trying not to let them score, you’re setting yourself up to get turned over,’ said the 31-year-old.
‘The gaffer has been really positive, last week against Rangers and previously against Celtic, by going two up front and really attacking. Hopefully, we can do that again.
‘We’ll try and give ourselves a chance. It’s not a free hit for us. A lot of people will look at it as a Celtic win already, but we won’t. We’ll go in, recover, watch videos of Celtic and try to get something.’
Asked if Hamilton were improving, Easton added: ‘I’ve seen so much from this team for the majority of games this season that I believe we have a right good chance of doing something good here. It’s about fixing the wee things. I see us getting better as the season goes on.’
And without a win in seven games, Livingston haven’t picked up three points since an incredible 2-0 victory at home to Celtic at the start of October and now travel to face Hearts on Wednesday.
‘It will be another tough game, but we drew with them here (0-0 in October),’ said Englishman Guthrie. ‘I certainly believe we can go there and win.’
Guthrie was left with his head in his hands when his early header came back off the woodwork before Southwood cleared the danger.
Asked if he thought his effort had crossed the line, he said: ‘It was hard to see. It was pretty close and we tried to persuade the ref it had gone over.
‘I’d have to see it back but it clipped the bottom of the post.
‘We had a lot of possession and were the only team that really looked like we were going to score. We had a lot of the ball, but we couldn’t quite break them down. We had half chances but couldn’t get that goal.’
LIVINGSTON (4-2-3-1): Sarkic 6; Jacobs 6, Lamie 6, Guthrie 6, Taylor-Sinclair 6; Bartley 5 (McMillan 46), Crawford 6 (Robinson 60); Lawson 6 (Erskine 68), Pittman 6, Lawless 6; Dykes 6. Subs not used: Stewart, Sibbald, Souda, Odoffin. Booked: None. HAMILTON (4-1-3-2): Southwood 7; McGowan 6, Stubbs 5, Easton 6, McMann 6; Gogic 5; Smith 6, Hunt 5, Miller 5; Oakley 5 (Martin 86), Ogkmpoe 5 (Moyo 64). Subs not used: Fon Williams, Hamilton, Want, Collar, Cunningham. Booked: Easton. Man of the match: Luke
Southwood. Referee: Willie Collum Attendance: 1,076.