Hughes return is silver lining for Hamilton
Hamilton Accies boss Brian Rice heaped praise on midfielder Ronan Hughes who came off the bench to bag a brace in the home defeat to St Johnstone.
Hughes replaced ex- Hearts and Rangers star David Templeton who went off injured in the first half and made an immediate impact when he scored to make it 1- 3 and then scored another to make it 3- 4 to give Accies hope of plundering a point.
Rice admitted that it was a massive boost to see Hughes back in his starting line- up after he limped off with a hamstring injury against Celtic at Parkhead on the opening day of the campaign.
Rice said: “Ronan Hughes has been really unfortunate as he played 45 minutes of the first game of the season at Parkhead and did his hamstring.
“He has not had any game time since because I could not arrange any friendlies because of the situation and the Betfred Cup fixtures.
“To get him on the pitch is a huge bonus for us and to score two goals will give him a massive lift.,
Meanwhile Saints manager Callum Davidson has hailed his squad’s neversaydie spirit and mentality and insists that the Perth sides recent League Cup form convinced him that a league win was in the post
Davidson’s men registered their first Premiership win in five matches since they beat St Mirren 1- 0 at Mcdiarmid Park back in August after enjoying successive League Cup wins over Kelty Hearts and Brechin earlier this month.
The man who has had the tough task of succeeding Perth managerial legend Tommy Wright this season said: “We are a small squad and we have to stick together.
“I believe in the quality we have here and I wasn’t worried about our recent run of form as I believed a win was coming.
“We couldn’t score a goal at the start of the season and now we have 12 in two games, so hopefully we can keep it going.
“The cup competition came at a good time for us.
“The character from my players to keep going and going was pleasing and I’m delighted for them.”