THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

But Imrie is gutted to be missing out on the fruits of his labour with Accies’ continental crusaders

AGROUND-BREAKING week commences at Hamilton’s New Douglas Park this afternoon — and not just on account of Steven Gerrard’s first visit as Rangers manager. On Wednesday, Swiss club Basle will provide the opposition for the second leg of a UEFA Youth League tie, the first European match to be played at the stadium.

For Dougie Imrie the occasion will be a source of both pride and frustration. Imrie and team-mate Darian MacKinnon coached the Under-17 team that won their age-group title last term but have been forbidden from taking the team further.

‘I had to step away from it, unfortunately,’ sighed Imrie, who will captain the club’s first team in this afternoon’s Ladbrokes Premiership match.

‘With Project Brave and the new rules you can’t take a team and play at the same time, so I’m back with our Under-16s, which I’m a bit disappointed about.’

After a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Switzerland, the young Accies are in a good position to qualify for the next round.

‘It’s all to play for on Wednesday and it’s an unbelievable time for the club with European football coming to Hamilton for the first time,’ enthused Imrie.

‘Hopefully a lot of folk will turn out to watch and give the players a boost, and maybe get something from the tie. ‘It was magic working with the team last year as they went the whole season — 24 games — undefeated to win the league. To take them into Europe is something that will stay with me forever. ‘It’s a huge achievement for this club and a reward for everything they’ve put into their academy. ‘I’m sure a lot of the first team will be there on Wednesday to watch as it’s been an unbelievable journey so far, and one that’s unlikely to be repeated. To go through a whole season undefeated in a league that includes Rangers, Celtic, Hibs and Aberdeen, who have a much bigger budget than we have, that will be hard to repeat. ‘The work that the chairman, the directors and (youth chief) George Cairns have done is immense and they’ve all had a hand in that success. ‘Some of these kids have been here since they were nine years old.’ The promotion of youth is as much a part of Hamilton’s ethos as a solid determination to back the manager in sticky times. That is why there has not been a whiff of speculation surrounding Martin Canning’s future even in the wake of a 6-0 rout at Hibs in the last league game. An especially turbulent start to the season saw Kenny Miller leave Livingston and Alan Stubbs sacked by St Mirren just weeks into their new roles.

The midweek dismissal of Neil McCann at Dundee means a quarter of the managers who started the Premiership season have now left their posts.

Throughout it all Canning has remained safe — and that suits the Hamilton Accies dressing room just fine.

‘I like the way the club does its business,’ admitted Imrie. ‘The manager always has their backing. You can see in previous seasons we’ve had sticky patches but we’ve always come out the end of it. A few seasons ago we went six matches without a win, another season I think we went five without a win — but we came out the end of it.

‘The manager here has been excellent. This is our fifth season in this division, so that stability is good. Even in a bad patch we’ll always stick together as a unit — nobody is getting daggers here and there. It stops any panic setting in.

‘There will be bad spells so it’s how you deal with it. We always want to do better each season but our main aim is to survive in this division and we always do that.’

Hamilton may be the league’s great survivors but Canning’s team cannot afford the sloppiness that defined their Easter Road display to become habit.

Imrie added: ‘The result at Hibs wasn’t great but it’s about how we react to that. We’ve got a tough run of games with Rangers, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen in our next three, so there’s no time for sulking. You can’t mope about losing 6-0 to Hibs — you have to try to put it right.

‘The biggest thing for us is consistency. We know we can beat the bigger teams — last year we won at Rangers and Hibs.

‘We want to get to that level where we can go six or seven games with just positive results.

‘Hopefully we don’t see too many more results and performances like the Hibs one as that was far from good enough.’

Rangers are still in search of their first away league win under Steven Gerrard and there is a determination at Accies to make today’s contest as uncomfortable as possible.

However, Imrie won’t hear any criticism of their pitch. Over the summer Accies laid a new synthetic turf at New Douglas Park and it is already earning a reputation as being of a significantly higher standard, not only of the stadium’s old playing surface, but the plastic at Kilmarnock and Livingston.

Widely unpopular among players and coaches alike, last weekend it was reported that players’ union PFA Scotland were being enlisted to back a campaign to have plastic banned.

Imrie does not buy into the theory that there is an enhanced physical risk on an artificial surface.

‘This pitch is first class,’ he stated. ‘The club have spent a lot of money on it and it’s good to play on.

‘Other teams will quite fancy it as it’s totally different to what was down last year. There are no excuses for other clubs coming here now.

‘People look at artificial pitches and use them as an excuse for injuries. I’ve played on this pitch and at Morton where we trained on artificial every day. So it doesn’t bother me. I’ve seen plenty of players get big injuries on grass parks, so injuries can happen anywhere, regardless of where it is.

‘Over the years, when the bigger teams have come here and lost it’s always been blamed on the pitch. It’s never because we’ve done well to nullify them, restrict them to very few chances and then create a few for ourselves.

‘And that’s harsh on us. It’s just too easy to use the pitch as an excuse.’

I like the way the club does its business. The manager always has their full backing