I WILL MAKE US BETTER
Chairman’s pledge for improvement at Accies
Allan Maitland has warned Hamilton’s misfiring stars that they’ll be shown the door in January as the club bid to avoid relegation from the Premiership.
The new chairman has put his full backing behind manager Martin Canning, and said players have a responsibility to turn around their ailing season – or be replaced.
Maitland said: “We’re entering the January window and there’s no doubt that the first team is in need of overhaul, so it’s important that we try to get some players out the door and some new players in, give Martin some support and make the first team better.
“We’re obviously in a relegation fight, and based on what we’ve got just now, we definitely need more.
“The game on Saturday showed that we had two or three players missing, and we can’t afford that. Motherwell had players missing and managed to get through it, but we can’t.
“We need to get players in, we need to get better players in that are going to help us, some strikers who are possibly capable of scoring some goals, so yes, there are lots of issues.
“I need to sit down and have a discussion with Martin and go through the whole thing. We have a good idea of what we’re looking at, and I just need to update him with the targets that he’s got, and see if we can get them in sooner, rather than later.”
Allan added: “We’re third-bottom of the league, I know the supporters are frustrated with the results, and they’re right to be. They’re frustrated with the performances but, for me, the players aren’t doing enough. We have players who simply haven’t done enough.
“It’s my job to try and make changes that are going to see some players leaving and give Martin the opportunity to get better players in.
“We’re short of a bit of height, setpieces are killing us, and it cost us two goals. We need to be stronger, we need to get players doing their jobs properly, we need to get better players in, and thereafter it’s up to Martin to make sure he gets the best he can from the team he’s got.
“It’s not through a lack of application from the players, sometimes we just need a bit of quality that is going to win us the game out of nothing, and at the moment we don’t have that.
“I’m going to ask the supporters to be patient and see if we can make things better during the January window.”