Hoddle news puts game ‘into perspective’
Steve Clarke last night spoke of his shock at learning his former Chelsea teammate Glenn Hoddle was seriously ill in hospital.
The two men were together at Stamford Bridge from 1993-96, during which time Hoddle was Clarke’s teammate and, latterly, his manager.
“My thoughts are with Glenn and his family,” said the Kilmarnock boss on being asked about the news Hoddle had collapsed at BT Sports studios earlier in the day.
“Hopefully it’s not as serious as it sounds and he makes a full recovery.
“Something like that puts the game of football into perspective.
“He’s a good man, Glenn. I spent some good years with him at Chelsea and I wish him – and his family – well.”
Clarke spoke after watching his Kilmarnock side move second top of the Premiership courtesy of a 1-1 draw against Hamilton Accies.
Accies had second half substitute Steven Boyd sent off for two bookings and his disappointed manager, Martin Canning, said the 21-year-old would need to learn from the experience.
“They are both yellow cards and I said this about Alex Penny last week, it is a bit of naivety,” he said.
“They are young players and it is part of the process of learning the game. The first one is the frustrating one, for me, I said that to him at the end.
“It is probably a foul on him. Greg Stewart has come across him and we don’t get the foul and then five seconds later he goes and wipes somebody out, commits a bad foul and gets his booking but it is just built-up frustration that causes it.
“The second one, all I can really say is, if you are an experienced player you don’t go for it because you have already been booked.
“But it is one of those ones, he is split-seconds out. If he nicks it, he is round and it would be a red card for Boyd but he is a second out and Boyd gets there first and it is a second yellow.”
Canning added: “It is part of his development and he will need to learn from it.”
Accies striker James Keatings, meanwhile, revealed he had said sorry to his teammates for his shocking miss, which cost his team the chance of a rare victory and left him still waiting for his first Premiership goal.
“I’m beating myself up for it. I should have scored but I put it past the post,” he said.
“I’m coming off thinking I should have scored and earned us the three points so I’ve apologised to the lads.”