Scottish football snipers wide of the mark, says keeper Matthews
REMI MATTHEWS has seen enough in his short spell at Hamilton Academical to dispel any notion that a move to Scotland is simply a “jolly up”.
The 22-year-old goalkeeper arrived at the club on a season-long loan from Norwich City in July with the sound of derision still ringing in his ears.
However, he has been impressed by the standard of competition during his 12 appearances and is pleased to have made the move north of the border.
Speaking ahead of the home Ladbrokes Premiership clash against Inverness Caledonian Thistle today, the Englishman said: “When I first came up here the lads back home were saying that they were not too sure about Scottish football. But until people come up here and play, I don’t think they know how competitive it is.
“You have seen bigger players; Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar [of Rangers], people who have made a good career in England come up here and if anything at the minute, not shown what they are capable of.
“It proves that people just can’t come up and think it is a jolly up because it is not. I’ve really enjoyed it. There is a good bunch of lads here and we’ve done well. We haven’t had the results in the last couple of games but I think we’ve shown what we are capable of.”
Standing in Hamilton’s way, though, are opponents who have won on their last six visits to the SuperSeal Stadium.
The Inverness midfielder Liam Polworth has no idea why they have such a good record but he is desperate to continue it.
Polworth enjoyed a particularly memorable afternoon on Hamilton’s artificial pitch last season, netting an injury-time winner in a seven-goal thriller.
“I got a couple of goals there last season and every time we went there we won,” the 21-year-old said.
“But Saturday is another game and it doesn’t really count for anything once the game starts.
“It just seems to be when we go there we pick up points.
“We like to get the ball down and play and I don’t know if the surface helps. I never really played on it when I was young – it was always grass. Some of the younger ones train on the astroturf now. So long as the pitch is good enough, we can play.”