Negative vibes spur Accies on every season
MIKEY DEVLIN says the pundits who annually tip Hamilton Accies to get relegated do the players a favour.
The Lanarkshire club are a perennial selection when it comes to the ‘who will finish bottom’ question in the pre-season previews.
That’s despite the fact that since their promotion in 2014, they have always managed to retain their top flight status.
“Listen, they have to tip someone to finish 12th, so some people are always going to be unhappy,” said the Accies skipper.
“Personally, I don’t pay too much attention to it, although some of the boys will.
“Dougie Imrie gets upset at times when he reads who has been tipped to finish bottom!
“But we’re a small club, so we understand why, at times, people make us favourites.
“While we understand why at times people make us favourites to go down, that’s not our own expectancy.
“We want to compete and finish as high up the division as we can.
“It’s a strong league this year, and the Premiership is getting back to what it was maybe five or six years ago, which is exciting.”
Exciting would be one way to describe Hamilton’s end to last season when they survived by beating Dundee United in the Play-Off Final against Dundee United. Fraught would be another. For Devlin especially. He took verbal abuse from the New Douglas Park fans as an eleventh-place finish became inevitable, then suffered a cruciate knee ligament, from which he is still recuperating, in the first leg against the Tangerines.
“I am six weeks into post-op so I’m looking at a return to the team in January or February, all being well,” he said.
“I’ve actually been looking forward to the games this season. But then you do watch them and it’s a reminder that you’re not playing.
“That side of it is difficult but it’s not about me. It’s about the team and preparing for the start of the season.”
Accies’ Premiership campaign kicks off at Pittodrie, where they are available at double-figure odds for victory.
Devlin admitted: “They’ve got a real tough game against an Aberdeen side full of confidence – although we did beat them twice last season. God knows how!
“Both were strange games, but the important thing was we walked away with the points.
“For this one, we know Aberdeen will be going in off the back of a midweek European trip.
“We’ll prepare the best we can and see if we can catch them cold if they’re a bit tired.”