New Accies skipper Mackinnon already expects ‘mad moments’

Darian Mackinnon brawled with one of his own players last season and then angered his manager by picking up a red card in a crucial derby versus Motherwell.

So it is natural he should start this season as the proud skipper of Hamilton Accies. And Martin Canning, the manager who fined Mackinnon for gesturing towards the Motherwell supporters in April, has a message for the 32 year-old midfielder on the season’s eve: don’t ever change.

Mackinnon, whose side start the new league season at home against Hearts on Saturday, has assured Canning there are no worries on that front.

“The captaincy doesn’t really change anything for me,” he said. “Between myself and Dougie Imrie, even when Mikey Devlin was captain, you still had your say and did what you did every day.

“At the end of the day it’s just an armband.

“Obviously, though, I’ve got to watch my Ps and Qs with the manager. I can’t be seen to be arguing with him in training, although I have been pulled three times already since we come back.

“The manager appreciates what I’m about,” he added. “He tells me to keep doing it. But it’s about building a culture. Brendan Rodgers talks about it at Celtic. If I’m the captain and doing stupid stuff then the others might think it’s alright. The manager can’t pull me and not them. So, you need to bring them on board at the start.”

Don’t expect a new, responsible Mackinnon to emerge this season. It simply isn’t his style. Indeed, were he to try and rein himself in, it’s likely his performances would suffer. Canning has recognised this.

“The manager told me as soon as he gave me the captaincy ‘I don’t want you to change,’” he said.

“He said that I’m going to have mad moments during the season and he’s going to have to pull me into his office several times.

“But he also said that if he felt he tried to calm me down then I wouldn’t be worth anything to anyone.

“I’ve tried to be nice before. It doesn’t work for me.”

What has changed at Hamilton, for the better, is the pitch. Their synthetic turf, which has looked past its best for some time now, has been relaid. Mackinnon believes this will benefit the home team rather than help the opposition.

“We’ve been training on the pitch quite a lot and it’s well better than last year’s pitch,” he reported. “It was terrible. There were holes in it, if you believe it, and tears with it every other week.

“They’ve spent the money this year, they’ve done it properly. Hopefully it will help towards us playing good football.”

“Obviously, plastic pitches aren’t ideal,” he added. “You don’t want it. I’d rather play on grass.

“But if you’re going to play on grass then as long as it’s the top quality one then I don’t mind.”

“We struggled on it last year. I think our home record was up there with one of the worst in the league. Our away form was better.

We went away to Hibs last year and won on the grass and it was probably our best performance of the season.

“We like to pass it. But on these pitches, when they go bad, it’s just about going back to front and fight for second balls.

That’s the kind of downfall with astroturf that you don’t enjoy. When they start to wear and tear that’s when it becomes a lottery who wins.”