CELTS RUN RINGS ROUND JAMBOS
BY FRASER WILSON
BRIAN RICE insists Hearts aren’t too good to go down and says the evidence on the pitch proves it.
The Hamilton boss reckons you only have to look at results to see the Jambos – with just two league wins all season – are in a relegation scrap for a reason.
Rice is preparing for a bottom-of-the-table clash with the Tynecastle side on Saturday with Daniel Stendel having just taken over.
And he said: “Nobody is too good to go down. You are where you are because that’s where you deserve to be.
“It doesn’t matter the size of the club. Look at Leeds. They’re a massive club yet they can’t get into the Premier League although they’ve got a good chance this season. The size of the club doesn’t matter.
“It’s what happens on the pitch that matters.”
Rice will go head to head with former Barnsley boss Stendel for the first time at the weekend but won’t get caught up in the German’s well-publicised “high press” tactics. He added: “I don’t see it presenting different challenges.
“It’s still the same players. It might be a different formation, set-up, way of going about things. But it’s still my team going out there to try to win the game.
“We’ve looked back this week at some footage of his Barnsley teams. On Saturday he tried to change them a little bit.
“But I’m not focusing too much on Hearts, it’s about us. Sometimes you can go overboard looking at the opposition and it can send a negative effect through your players.
“We will be as positive as we can and try to put a team out on the pitch to try and win the game.
“I don’t think anyone hides their tactics. It’s dead easy to see what every team does.
“Every manager looks at the opposition and decides the best way to play them.
“The lad’s new to Scottish football. You have your own way to play which is fine.”
The home meeting with Hearts is the first of a threematch festive period Rice hopes will see his side lift themselves up the table ahead of the winter break.
A Boxing Day clash with St Johnstone at home is followed by a Lanarkshire derby trip to Motherwell.
Rice admits he has a points target for the threegame run in mind – not that he will be sharing it with his players.
The Accies gaffer said: “I’ve got a number in my head I’d like but I don’t put pressure on the boys.
“There’s enough pressure on them without me putting it on them.
“I know I’ve got the character and endeavour in there. I’ve got the players I need to go and win games.
“One or two have been injured but it’s opened the door to other ones.
“We’ve never moaned or used excuses, we’ve just got on with it.”