Lewis wary of underdog’s bite
Former Rangers defender vows to come back from Fir Park exit and outlines admiration for old boss – while calling into question Celtic’s recent reign, hears Mark Hendry
ABERDEEN captain Joe Lewis has learned never to write off Hamilton. Brian Rice’s side maybe bottom of the Scottish Premiership on goal difference behind Kilmarnock with a game in hand, but Lewis maintains a healthy respect for the Lanarkshire outfit.
The 33-year-old goalkeeper, who joined the Dons from Cardiff City in 2016, said: “I have been here in Scotland coming up to five years and when I first came, Hamilton was a game where you naively thought ‘we will get three points here’, but you just can’t take that for granted.
“Hamilton thrive on being the underdog and they want people to underestimate them and take your foot off the pedal, and if you do that they will punish you.
“Hamilton, especially at this part of the season, always seem to come and grab a few surprise results. I am sure they are not surprised by them, but for neutrals looking in...
“I always feel they never know when they are beaten, they can be two or three nil down and they will still go and get a couple of goals back. We expect a tough battle.
“They are fighting for survival in this league and we are fighting for third spot so it is going to be a game with a lot of passion and effort. Hopefully the qualities we have in our team can stand out.
“We have seven league games coming up which are massive. Obviously we are looking to get three points [today].”
Aberdeen are four points behind third-placed Hibernian having played a game more, but Lewis is confident of overtaking the Easter Road side.
“Third place is definitely a massive goal for us,” he said. “Obviously Hibs have the advantage at the moment and they have a game in hand as well. But everyone is fighting for various reasons and there is plenty to play for.
“After the split you play teams around you and there will be a lot of surprise results between now and the end of the season.
“We are looking to keep battling away. It is going to be very interesting and depending how the post-split fixtures pan out, there could be some crunch games towards the end of the season.”
Accies will be turning the clock back as they head up to Pittodrie. They will make the bus journey to Aberdeen without having anywhere to stop off for food with the solution being an old fashioned packed lunch for the journey.
“It’s very difficult for us,” said Rice. “We can’t go for food, which we’d normally do for Ross County and Aberdeen, so the lads have to bring food with them. I wouldn’t trust some of them to bring the right things so we might need to go into Morrison’s on the way and get some stuff. I couldn’t see somebody like Scott Martin making his own food.
“But years ago we never went for pre-match meals, we just went and played. It’s not a big deal.”
Bruce Anderson cannot play against his parent club this afternoon while Marios Ogkmpoe is also out of the game. Shaun Want and Jamie Hamilton are also missing but it is the front pairing that could be a serious loss for Rice, particularly since Anderson has hit the ground running after his January loan deal.
“Bruce has done what I thought he would and more. He is in every morning with a smile on his face and a spring in his step,” said Rice. “Bruce and Marios have formed a really good partnership. To lose one of them is difficult and it’s worse to lose the two of them but it gives other players a chance.”
They never know when they are beaten
THE SATURDAY SIT-DOWN
LOVE your job and you’ll never work a day in your life. For Maurice Ross, no proverb or mantra could ring any truer. The former Rangers defender had, since retiring in 2013, been living it every day. Especially since he joined Motherwell as part of Stephen Robinson’s coaching staff in 2019.
Improving and educating players was the perfect role for Ross at Fir Park. It started with the Under-18s and 21s before he was promoted to work with the first team with Robinson, the man he lauds as one of the best managers he has worked with. The Steel Men, before Robinson departed at the end of last year, enjoyed cup finals and third-place finishes in the Premiership and Ross was never happier than when he was on the training pitch.
So when new ’Well boss Graham Alexander walked through the door, Ross might have been forgiven for going through the motions in a bid to hold onto that feeling. But that’s not his style. Alexander brought in his own man, Chris Lucketti, and coaching opportunities with the players became harder to come by for Ross, who is not one to waste his own time.
“I was used to going into work and not working so it was an environment that didn’t suit,” he said. “I went from being an integral part of Stephen’s staff, from coaching and organising training to implementing the style and individual training, to doing nothing. It’s hard, you want to go into work and feel valued and not like a burden to the football club. You want to feel like an asset. Their way was just totally different.
“There was no big fight or anything like that, it was all done amicably and the best thing to do was to move on for my sanity, basically. I didn’t want to be a burden to the club, a financial burden. When I’m not doing my job I feel guilty and I didn’t want to go to work and feel as though I was not having an impact. It was best to remove myself from that environment.
“They have their own way of doing things and the amount of coaching was less than I was used to, and with a limited amount of coaching, it’s not that they didn’t fancy me as a coach, but there’s only a certain amount of coaching time in the week and they get taken up. It’s just a different way of working, I respect that and good luck to them.”
In the middle of a global pandemic it would be natural to question Ross’s thought process. We have seen countless stories of talented people having to trade in their cushy grad jobs for roles in the far less glamorous fast-food industry.
But for Ross it genuinely never crossed his mind. He is fully comfortable with his decision, even months later. He knows that, with his experience and knowledge of the game, a new job won’t be far away. Whether it’s back with old pal Robinson or as his own man.
“The pandemic honestly didn’t come into my mind at all,” he added. “I’m impulsive, I’m true to myself and my values and I live my life by that. I can wake up in the morning knowing I behaved impeccably at Motherwell, I gave them my football life while I was there. I was a nerd, I was dedicated, I came home knowing I’d given everything to that football club to improve their football players and coached them to within an inch of my life.
“With the pandemic, football and life goes on, you still need coaches, it’s just picking the right option. There’s no guarantee in football. Myself and the gaffer [Robinson] have had quite frank discussions because there’s no guarantee he’ll be in a job in the next six months. If something came up for me in the meantime it’d be a conversation with the family and I’d also need to consider his opinion on it. It’s a hypothetical that I hope I don’t need to go into because I feel there’s still work left to be done with Stephen. But if the two of us get back in the saddle, it’ll be an exciting prospect.
“We have a good connection, watching him work and how he handles the day-to-day grind of a football club he’s very, very good at it. How he delegates and trusts staff, the amount of camaraderie he brings to a club while having the edge to keep staff and players on their toes he drives the whole football club.
“At the moment I see myself still in a supporting role with Stephen and if he gets a position at a football club there would be a discussion about me going with him. I feel he’s in a position to almost pick and choose a job but it’d have to be the right one. Like Motherwell, he was given time. Look at the Rangers job for example, there are not many managers who could preside over a double Treble and still keep their job.
“It’s now worked because they trusted the process and Stephen will be looking for a similar environment where he can build something from
I was a nerd, I was dedicated, I came home knowing I’d given everything to that football club to improve their players
scratch again. I like being on the grass and coaching players to make them better. If that role evolves into me being a manager one day down the line, so be it. I’m a big believer in ‘football chooses you, you don’t choose it’. If one day I’m coaching and someone says, ‘I like the cut of his jib’, then it’ll be football choosing me.
“I feel like my natural talent is coaching and educating but if a job came to me, great, if not I’m happy coaching.”
If coaching has taken over his life now, it was playing professionally for 13 years that kicked things off. His five years as an Ibrox stalwart is perhaps what he’s best known for. After all, in a strong Alex McLeish Rangers side, Ross won a good haul of silverware.
But that was at a time when there was also a competitive Celtic team, managed by Martin O’Neill, and the battle for supremacy in Scottish football was thrilling. Not like now, the retired defender says. The Parkhead club’s 10-in-a-row bid has crumbled before their eyes this season but Ross isn’t convinced it can be considered a serious decade of dominance.
“If you’re asking me, the nine years Celtic enjoyed is actually only four years,” he said. “Rangers were in the doldrums so for me it was a false dominance, as such. Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic were phenomenal and that was dominant, you can’t take anything away from Celtic during that time.
“Now it’s a fair fight whereas before Rangers were playing catch up. Celtic will now have to invest very wisely on the new manager and playing squad to compete with Rangers. When Rangers won nine in a row, Celtic were in the league. And as nice as it is to see Aberdeen, Motherwell and these clubs competing, it’s not the same. It’s just a false dominance.
“Pep Guardiola alludes to it all the time: they win football matches because they spend the most money on players. Yes there’s the style and ideology but there’s no secret to it that if you spend big you’re likely to win football matches.”
It’s almost a full year ago to the day that Rangers lost 1-0 at home to struggling Hamilton Accies, a result that could have ended Steven Gerrard’s reign as boss. Ross, though, believes his former employers have been rewarded for their patience. “Rangers have trusted the process and it’s getting results.” he said. “Full credit goes to the Rangers board and the staff who have created an environment the players appreciate. It’s so simple, it’s brilliant, and it’s a great time to be a Rangers fan.”
AARON McENEFF finally feels at home off the pitch. Now he wants to make his presence felt on it. The Hearts midfielder endured a surreal introduction to life in Edinburgh following his January arrival from Shamrock Rovers, initially living in a near-deserted hotel amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
He was briefly joined in the Courtyard by Marriott hotel at Riccarton by the Scotland national rugby team – preparing for their Six Nations’ exploits – and fellow signings Armand Gnanduillet and Gervane Kastaneer.
Days were whittled away with long walks, cooking and gaming, but it was far from the ideal introduction to Scotland’s capital, even if McEneff is loath to complain given the struggles others are facing.
He now has his own flat in the city and, with the relaxation of restrictions hopefully on the horizon, is looking forward to a bright future – professionally and personally.
“I’m a lot more settled now,” confessed McEneff. “I’ve got my own place after being in the hotel for three weeks. My missus is over with me now, too, so it should be a lot better from now on.
“The Scottish Rugby boys were in there but, other than them, I only ever saw two of the other lads who signed – and they arrived before me so they got out of the hotel quite quickly!
“As you can imagine, going back from training to a hotel room every day wasn’t ideal.
“I went for plenty of walks, cooking, TV, Playstation, simple stuff like that. Your daily life changes and you can’t even go down for a coffee. But that’s the situation and we are in a good position compared to a lot of people – I won’t be crying about not going for a coffee or a meal.”
Nor is McEneff crying about his own form, even if he is adamant there is a lot more to come. The former Tottenham Hotspur youngster has been a rare bright spot for the Tynecastle side during a rather turgid run of three successive 1-1 draws, bringing energy to the midfield and showing a willingness to burst into the box.
His showings are all the more impressive given he would ordinarily be in preseason, such is the summer football calendar in the League of Ireland.
“I’ve got two starts now and I feel like my overall match fitness is improving week-onweek and I feel a lot stronger,” continued McEneff.
“I would have been doing pre-season back home, so getting minutes into the legs has been good for me.
“You need to find the balance without pushing too hard, breaking down and getting injured. I think I’ve found that balance.
“I’ve made a positive enough impact coming off the bench, then against Morton in my first start at home I felt like I had a good 60 minutes, getting on the ball – and I should have scored.
“I maybe died out a little in that game, just due to a lack of match fitness but then against Inverness I felt a lot stronger and wasn’t tired at all for the whole 90. I was back to my old self.
“Now, I’d like to get my name on the scoresheet and create a few goals for the team.”