just saw his interview on STV and did not come across well at all............we're this we're that we're not Gretna.....who cares you will be next seasons whipping boys.

Manager of the year my erse Gordon Chisolm deserves it more, accies have only won the 1st Div at least QoS have beaten SPL standard, although a very poor standard. accies have to prove they can hold their own........relegated by xmas.

Wow! The guy has just won the league with a team of youngsters and he has the cheek to go TV and act positive about his teams chances next season! What a scumbag, hang him I say!

people who put themselves on a pedestal are there to be shot down

Is it Bear hunting season yet?


<<< Takes aim

I'd quite happily shoot Rangers fans.

Aye Reid should have adopted the 'We're as bad as Gretna, we've got no hope and I'll lay money on us being relegated by Christmas' approach. Seem to remember Yogi doing the same.

Acht away and read your Rupert book.

He was covertedly warning the SPL not to underestimate his side next season. Hamilton are a very good footballing side and on their day are capable of beating anyone.

Hamilton are the strongest side to come up from the first in years, albeit with a load of youngsters. They will avoid relegation and will not finish 9th. Bookmark this post

I must have imagined Accies beating Kilmarnock.

Very poor standard? That doesn't say much for Falkirk given Aberdeen beat you to a top six finish. You should fear Accies. In fact, I think you do. That's the point of this thread, isn't it? You can almost smell the excrement sliding its way down your inside leg.

How about 10th or 11th?

at rupert the bairn.

Gretna were the exception, Their downfall had already started before the end of last season. Unless there is a mass raid on their young players in the close season Accies will stay up. Any Falkirk supporter with any kind of wit about them should have seen at first hand that this is so.

Hamilton won't disgrace themselves next season and Reid seems pretty clued up as a manager

Why?

This will be the hardest SPL to survive in since we came up. In the last 3 seasons Livi, Dunfermline and Gretna were the obvious pre season favourites. Livi had the lowest budget, Gretna will have had the lowest budget and Hamilton will have the lowest budget.

Money talks.

oh err, add Bairns fans to the St Mirren fans crapping themselves

Hamilton will survive for one season no probs. After that they are fooked........no sizeable fan base.

Their first team is stronger than yours.

Nothing like a fan of one of the SPL diddy teams abusing a 1st division team to bring everyone together

Are Falkirk's and St Mirrens budgets likely to be significantly higher than Hamiltons? Could be a very interesting relegation battle next season in the SPL.

Just shows how cliquey it's getting in the SPL with their closed shop attitude though eh?? Only top flight in the world where it's a one up one down system and they moan about every team that comes up from the SFL. Reeks of fear for losing their SPL status.

None of the SPL sides should kid themselves about Hamilton, they will be a force next season. If they keep their current squad together, I don't see any reason why they can't finish ahead of the likes of Falkirk, Killie, ICT, St Mirren etc. They may even challenge for a top 6 slot if teams like Hearts and Aberdeen continue to flatter to deceive.

They didn't have a big budget this year and they have won the league comfortably in the end over a high spending team. What they do have to compensate for money is a conveyer belt of young talent. Buying is always fraught with risk. When you have nurtured your own player you know what he can do and when and where to put him in a team. I also don't doubt that Hamilton will bring in a few to supplement what they have.

I'd love them to at least stay up.

Ah, nothing quite like the kettle applying it's insight to the behaviour of the kettle. Whatever those budgets might be, you can be pretty sure they will be based on what the club has to spend rather than what can be mis-appropriated from others. Know what I mean?

Hamilton have some good young players in a squad that is already good enough to compete against the bottom half of the SPL. Most of the young players will improve combined with a few decent preseason additions and the initial feelgood confidance promotion brings will get Hamilton through their first season. Combine this with the fact that at least one current SPL team will not perform up to expectations. That is why I am confident Accies will stay up.
Also although Gretna were favourites to go down I'm pretty sure Livvi and Dunfermline weren't, I thought it was Falkirk and St Mirren, the 2 teams just promoted.
Ruperts post is said about the promoted team every season. But it is nearly always wrong.

My thoughts exactly.

If anyone has been to the SPL forums you'll see just how the Self Preservation League's fans stick together like shit on a shovel.

My god you first division chaps even look like Nelson Mandela next to them.

The SPHell's dross clubs realise that whether it was Accies or Dundee, they were going to be in for a hell of a fight to stay in their cosy position. After several first division teams taking them to the cleaners, who can blame them.

Fixed it for you (Dundee, St. Johnstone and Dunfermline all had bigger budgets than Accies this season).

If we can finish higher than those three i reckon we'll surely finish higher than one of the SPL's poorer sides.

I think the key will be the home record, if we can win half our home games, we'll be ok.

Going by their record this season, it appears that the loss of their plastic pitch may be a serious hindrance to Accies' hopes of survival.

As I've said elsewhere though, when we were promoted Livi had a far lower budget than we did. We were a big spending team by SFL standards and spent more than Inverness that season as well.

In the last 3 seasons there have been obvious teams that were ripe to be picked off in the SPL for the team coming up, apart from Gretna who were 12th before a ball was kicked (and incidentally whose fans refused to accept this, with comedy results).

This will be a much much harder SPL to survive in than the one we joined.

And what if you go by our home record for the previous three seasons?

The plastic-haters have a real blind spot when it comes to recognising that Accies have only had a phenomenal home record on plastic in one season out of four.

I suspect most of our first team prefer to play on grass, and will be delighted by the switch. And then the pitch-slaggers will have one less reason to denigrate Accies awesome home record.

To be fair mate, I hadn't looked at the previous 3 seasons. The fact that you went a full campaign conceding only 3 goals was a remarkable achievement which could, in part, be attributable to your pitch. I bear you no ill feeling, in fact, after 19 years you're due a shot in the SPL. Chill oot!

Away table
________P--W--D--L--F--A--Pts
Accies---17--9--2--6-32-23-29
Dundee-18--7--6--5-24-17-27
D'line----18--6--7--5-17-21-25
They've got that won as well with a game in hand. Looks like the plastic might not be that big a loss.

At the last meet the manager night both Elebert and Neil stated they preferred playing on grass. Also there were lots of positive noises being made towards the accies budget and finances for next season and it was said that we could easily compete with the bottom 6 clubs in the area of money, so dont count us out due to a small budget.

Gretna - need i say more

Billy is like fu cking Shakespeare compared to monosyllabic John Hughes.

Hope Hamilton do the 1st Division proud next season, best team in the division by a looong way and will pass some of the SPL teams off the park.

Steve

"Nearly"...

I find it slightly ironic that you're a Falkirk fan...

Dont think that will bother SPL teams, at the end of the day it's who scores the most goals that wins! .

FWIW I dont think Hamilton could pass Falkirk off the park if they were on their game, I think Falkirk are a great passing team to watch (on their day!).

I actually think Hamilton will stay up next season, I think they will be in the bottom half, possibly bottom 4, but I think St Mirren will be playing in the SFA Division 1 within the next twa years!

Woops, i'm so used to the first division now

I mean they wont get relegated or finish 11th.

If they survive at all then it will be in second bottom place. You are in a fucking dream world if you think they will be sitting anywhere near mid table.

The only team in real bother next season out the current SPL sides is potentially Killie as they are skint and are signing rubbish like Allan Russell. But Killie will still be tough for Accies to finish above. I don't think they will.

What I find realy perplexing about Rupert's comments is that Billy Reid came across quite well on the interview. He was asked spceifically if he thought Accies would stay up and said he wasn't going to make any predictions that could end up coming back to bite him and said he was under no illusions as to just how hard a task lay ahead. He only used the opportunity to state, quite rightly, that we have a good set up at the club and the emphasis is on bringing our own young players through and that will continue in the SPL.

As for budgets well we're debt free which has to help. If we lose McArthur and McCarthy we will at least be compensated with extra income. Saturday (and the Dundee home match recently) showed the potential there is in the town for Accies to attract bigger supports. It will take time but if we consolidate in the SPL our home support will increase, okay these may not be dyed in the wool Accies fans but if they're paying their money and coming every week then I'm quite happy to welcome them.

St Mirren, Inverness Caley Thistle, Kilmarnock, Falkirk - we have nothing to fear from these teams as they are not a million miles ahead of us. They can point to SPL experience and how established they are in the top flight but what does that count for? Dunfermline had been established in the SPL for 7 years before they came down this season and we roundly thrashed them 5-1. These teams will point to their bigger fan base which of course I won't deny, but we've finished ahead of teams such as Dundee, St Johnstone and Dunfermline who have a much bigger fan base than us and even the likes of Partick Thistle, Queen of the South and Livingston tend to have a bigger average gate than us. That didn't help any of these sides win the league ahead of us.

Right now nobody is putting Accies on a pedestal, only the Falkirk and St Mirren fans not all) are putting their clubs on a pedestal and setting them up for a fall with their comments about how Accies are going to be the whipping boys. Academical is a serial bookmarker and mark my words these comments will be stored and used against you in the future!

You really are shittin yourself about next season aren't you? Never mind after next season you'll have your derby matches back. I'm sure the Morton fans will look forward to trashing your shiny new stadium!

It counts for a hell of a lot. The only team in there in potential trouble is Killie. The other three clubs are also debt free and will offer better wages than Accies and will attract better players. Killie are really in trouble financially though and may be the team you can pick off. When we came up Dunfermline were in a lot of strife on and off the park and even then we only just managed to stay up.

I dont think Accies will be whipping boys. Billy Reid knows how to set up defensively so the gubbings will be lessened and the morale might stay higher for longer. Thats pretty much how McPherson set us up last season. Keep it tight, give yourself a chance and hope you catch your opponents having a 'mare. Even then we went on a gigantic winless streak, nobody humping us, but we couldnt buy a win. The SPL is like that. When your confidence is low its hard to see where the next point is coming from.

That's the best sig I've seen for a long time. My preferred version is:

Oh Brian Wake, Is full of skills,
Oh Brian Wake is full of skills,
He's full of skills, skills and more skills,
Oh Brian Wake is full of skills.




This isn't a sarcastic question, but where is the finance from the stadium coming from? Will that not affect your budget or has that been set aside already?

I really do think that Hamilton are well equipped to survive quite comfortably in the SPL, especially if they can hang onto the likes of McArthur and Easton. They've been the most impressive title winners since Falkirk, IMO. Hate to say it , but it would've been a travesty if Dundee nabbed promotion to be honest

With the highest league for Accies' academy recruits to showcase their undoubetd talent, Hamilton could make a good few bob selling on their players which will safeguard their future for a long time yet. I get the feeling that they'll be like Hibs in that their vibrant youth setup will continue to produce good youngsters to replace the ones that they sell on for a tasty profit

Best of luck to them in the SPL, I have no doubt they'll do the SFL1 proud

For the the sake of your argument its probably best you don't. But I will for you. Gretna are the first team in eight seasons to go straight back down. even then there were exceptional circumstances, Sacked their manager and sold one of their best players when they were heading for promotion. Actions which came within 2 minutes of costing them promotion. Administratation. Need I say more?
I am truly amazed that Falkirk can't remember they same reaction to their promotion. I can certainly remember the 3 times Thistle were promoted to the Premier League we were told the same thing by the premier league experts, never happened.

Five-nil.

"these comments will be stored and used against you"

Err, Dunfermline were an established SPL whipping boy and had just come off a season which was one embarrassment after another in the league, after being second bottom and saved by Livi the season before that.

I don't think they are a good benchmark

The way St.Mirren will finish mid-table of course.By god,the Scottish cringe is alive and well.Judging by the SPL Forum,they have no respect for the achievements of any First Division side.

We will stick to the McCarthy's while you help Scottish football by playing youths like Andy Millen.

Err, until very recently were were First Division sides

We know exactly how shite that division is, and how different life is a run up the ladder

So how many goals did you beat them by then?

I'm glad you asked!

We beat Dunfermline a cumulative 8-0 over the season recording 4 wins out of 4 and 12 points

Damn!

We escaped relegation by the skin of our teeth two years on the bounce and last year it was a year too far. Had we stayed up we would of had a chance to build but our run started too late on in the season.




The sold Love Street for about 3.7 billion or something in a deal i cannot believe they got.



Tell us about your Recent European Trips?Infact,tell us about any of them?