Hamilton V St Mirren at New Douglas Park : Match Preview

21 November 2014 16:31
Hamilton V St Mirren - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.


Accies at full strength

Hamilton have a full squad for their Scottish Premiership contest against St Mirren.

Left-back Stephen Hendrie returned unscathed on Wednesday night after setting up Scotland Under-21s' stoppage-time equaliser in Switzerland.

Player-manager Alex Neil is optimistic his players will find a new burst of energy following the international break.

"In recent games we have still been scoring and looked a threat in an attacking sense," he said. "We have just made a few costly errors at the back.

"I think a week freshening up mentally as much as anything else will hopefully help us.

"I don't think people talking about us being top of the league has been draining - it's just the fact we have such a young group and they have stepped up a level, and to maintain the performance levels and hunger week in, week out, against this calibre of opposition is difficult.

"They are not always going to be at the top of their game. For the first 10,11 games we were at the top of our game or close to it. The last couple of games we have had a five to 10 per cent dip and that makes it hard to win games at this level.

"So mentally it's important to refresh and get back to that real hunger and desire and work-rate."

St Mirren boss Tommy Craig will have to go with the same squad that lost to Partick Thistle two weeks ago.

John McGinn (knee), Ellis Plummer (groin), Isaac Osbourne (shin), Steven Thompson and Gregg Wylde (both groin) all sat out the defeat to the Jags but are not yet ready to return.

Player/coach Jim Goodwin, meanwhile, serves the second of his three-match ban for elbowing Dundee United forward Aidan Connolly.

Craig's men have not kept a single clean sheet this season having shipped 22 goals in 13 Scottish Premiership matches.

With high-flying Hamilton next up, defender Jason Naismith says it will require a combined effort.

"We need to start keeping clean sheets," he said. "We haven't had one this season and that is not good enough.

"But it's not just down to the back four. The whole team need to take the onus and try to improve that.

"Hamilton have been really organised in defence while also scoring a lot of goals. They have been the perfect team so far.

"They had a wee dip recently but that was always going to happen because they are a young side."


Source: PA