BRUCE ALMIGHTY
Hamilton loan star Anderson is hitting the back of the net while his parent club fire blanks
WHILE it remains the prerogative of any manager to decide if a certain player is part of his plans, there’s always a risk that his judgment might be called into question later.
Given the use of a time machine, it may be that Derek McInnes would still approve Bruce Anderson’s loan deal from Aberdeen to Hamilton until the end of the season.
Needing to reshape his entire front line, the Dons boss recruited Fraser Hornby, Callum Hendry and Flo Kamberi as the transfer window closed, evidently believing they represented an upgrade on the options at his disposal. Time may yet prove him right.
The trouble, at this precise moment, is that Anderson seems to be the identikit of what the Dons are lacking, simply because he’s producing the one thing they haven’t been able to buy in six games.
A second successive goal for the 22-year-old for Brian Rice’s men against St Mirren on Wednesday was certainly more ammunition for McInnes’ detractors.
Unlike his time at Ayr United, where Anderson spent nine games on loan from October sandwiched in between a handful of Dons appearances, these recent goals — plus two assists against Motherwell — have come in the top flight.
And if it looks to the Pittodrie faithful that a player who’s hit the ground running in Lanarkshire has something of a point to prove? Well, they would be absolutely right to make that assumption.
‘The manager has taken me in here and I’ve loved every minute,’ said the forward, who is out of contract in the summer. ‘I feel wanted here. I’ve not really felt that before.
‘The manager has treated me well since I came in. It’s just about me repaying him now and just enjoying my football.
‘I was really frustrated how it went in the first half of the season. It didn’t work out for a number of reasons on and off the pitch.
‘Just because it didn’t work out doesn’t mean I didn’t learn from it. I didn’t score the goals that possibly people would have thought.
‘I’m looking to channel that frustration here and hopefully keep Hamilton in the league.’
Born in Banff and having been with Aberdeen since the age of 12, Anderson didn’t take any pleasure from news of another defeat for his parent club on Wednesday. He seems oblivious to it all now. Accies’ perennial battle for survival has captured his imagination. He’ll leave it to others to worry about the rights and wrongs of his exit from the Granite City. He said: ‘It is what it is. I’m just focused on here. Hamilton is the club I’m at just now. Aberdeen is at the back of my mind.
‘I just want to put in as many good performances for Hamilton as I can. The main thing is just playing games. I’m enjoying it.’
The little-and-large partnership he has formed with Marios Ogkmpoe has immediately gelled and looks capable of providing the goals that will preserve the club’s status for another year.
‘I love playing with him,’ said Anderson. ‘We are two completely opposite players in terms of style. He loves challenging for the ball and doing the dirty work.
‘He takes the bumps and I just play around him. We’ve already got a real understanding.
‘I’m just looking to improve that partnership and hopefully there’s more goals to come from the both of us.’
Having fallen behind to Ilkay Durmus’s raking drive on Wednesday, Accies’ response was commendable.
If there was a degree of good fortune about the deflection Anderson’s equaliser took to deceive Jak Alnwick, it would have been difficult to begrudge the visitors the point which took them level with Kilmarnock.
‘That’s everything this club is about,’ added Anderson. ‘Every day in training we’re at it. The manager doesn’t let us take our foot off the gas.
‘That’s a credit to the club as a whole. It always seems to find a way (of staying up). Hopefully this year we’ll do the same.
‘We went a goal down and it would have been easy for the heads to go down but that doesn’t happen here. We rolled the sleeves up.
‘We’ve got that never-say-die attitude. I’m just happy I managed to contribute with a goal. We don’t look like a team that’s fighting at the bottom of the table. Since I came in, it’s been a really tight-knit group. ‘We’ve got that feelgood factor at the moment. Long may that continue. We look forward to the next game now. They can’t come quick enough.’
A trip to Easter Road tomorrow, historically a happy hunting ground for Accies, is an assignment to be respected but not feared.
Now three games unbeaten for the first time this season, there is every reason to believe Hamilton may soon be looking down on the bottom two places.
‘We’ve just got to take every game as it comes,’ said Anderson. ‘We’ve got a really tough game at the weekend. We’ve just got to do what we always do — roll the sleeves up, get in about it and see where it takes us.
‘Maybe Aberdeen can do us a turn on Saturday (by beating Killie). I’ll be speaking with some of the boys and hopefully they can get one over on them.’