Rice backs Mimnaugh as a star of the future

HAMILTON 1

Davies 63

ST MIRREN 1

Dreyer 66pen

Brian Rice reckons Hamilton youngster Reegan Mimnaugh is a mirror image of himself at 17 but hopes that his career turns out to be significantly more successful than his own.

Mimnaugh was again the stand-out performer for Rice’s team as they claimed a valuable 1-1 draw against relegation rivals St Mirren on Saturday.

The midfielder is already showing signs that he is maturing into a top player after strolling through the battle with the Buddies.

The sight of Mimnaugh holding his own against more senior competitors had Rice reminiscing back to the early days of his own career. After emerging at Hibernian, Brian Clough saw enough in Rice to pay £175,000 to take the cultured youngster to Nottingham Forest in 1985. Despite some eye-catching moments, his time at the City Ground was not as successful as he hoped and Rice returned north six years later.

“I see a lot of myself in young Reegan – he’s left-footed, very slight,” said Rice. “I just hope he has a better career than I did. I’ve got a lot of time for the kid. He never stops working in training. First and foremost, he’s in the team on merit. I need quality on the ball and I’ll get a little bit more next season. But Reegan is in on merit. I can only give him the opportunity. He’s got to earn the right to be in the team and stay in it.” Accies were looking to stretch their distance from the drop zone to seven points and it looked good after 63 minutes when Steve Davies steered home his first goal for the club from Tony Andreu’s cross. But they held the advantage for just three minutes as Saints winger Anders Dreyer won a penalty after being hauled down by Ziggy Gordon before scoring from the spot.

Saints will feel it was a chance missed to cut tenthplaced Hamilton’s lead after seeing Brad Lyons spurn two great first-half chances. Coach Oran Kearney said: “He’s nearly inconsolable and is very hard on himself with his high standards.”