Scott is up for the fight ahead with the Accies
Scott McMann says he plans to stick around for Hamilton Accies’ bid to bounce straight back up to the Premiership.
The Lanarkshire club go into today’s game against Kilmarnock, knowing it will take a miracle to avoid relegation.
The realisation their top-flight run is over has been tough on everyone, but especially so on McMann, an academy graduate who made his first-team debut back in 2013, aged just 16.
“The journey back from Ross County is never a fun one, and it certainly was not the best last Wednesday,” he said of the midweek defeat that all but sealed their fate.
“It didn’t feel real at full-time in Dingwall, but it certainly sunk in as the boys all reflected on what had just happened.
“Everyone was just devastated. “Since I came into the first team, we’ve been a Premiership side and we’ve managed to stay up every year, albeit some years in the play-offs and some years on the last day.
“We’ve always managed to get it done. So it is bitterly disappointing, and we feel we have let ourselves down.
“We feel through the season, with Covid and injuries, we’ve not had the luck. But we can’t use that as an excuse. Over the season, we have not been good enough.
“Now we need to take it on the chin, put it right next year and come straight back up.”
The Championship is a notoriouslyunforgiving environment for clubs coming down, with some of the country’s biggest names having found themselves temporarily trapped in the second tier.
McMann, though, is convinced Accies can do a Hearts and come straight back up – provided they keep the squad together.
“Hearts are a very big club, and they budgeted for this year. But I think we have to look at the way they did it,” he said.
“We need to build up some momentum, and then kick on from there.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t do it. “We will have injured boys coming back who we haven’t had pretty much all season. So they will be like new signings for us next year.
“And if we keep all the boys we have got, I have no doubt we can challenge and get ourselves up into the top league.
“I know I’m more than happy to be here, and ready to try to get the club back to where we feel we belong.”