It’s been five years since the players and staff at Hamilton Accies last had the luxury of enjoying an international break. For the long-suffering supporters, that must feel like a life time ago.
Since watching their team’s seven-year stint in the Scottish top flight come to an end in 2021, their club has stumbled from one crisis to another.
A second relegation in three seasons saw Accies drop down to third tier for the 2023-24 campaign, before battling their way back up at the first time of asking via the play-offs.
They looked a decent bet to consolidate their spot in the Championship before the floor went from under them 11 months ago.
A 15 point-deduction handed down the SPFL for a series of rule breaches saw to that.
A further six were docked last October, before a Scottish Cup defeat at the hands of Airdrieonians saw manager John Rankin announce his resignation after revealing he had spent the previous day chasing up players’ unpaid wages. No wonder he looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
For his own health as much as anything else, that was the right decision.
Nine more points were deducted in December, with another six thrown in for good measure in February, while the threat of administration loomed large.
Thankfully, an agreement was reached at the start of this month to ensure that won’t happen. Not in the immediate future, at least.
Which means for the time being, the focus can shift to matters on the pitch.
Hamilton Accies have been playing at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld this season
Accies go into today’s clash against bottom side Kelty Hearts at Broadwood in the knowledge that victory will see them, in all likelihood, rubber stamp their rivals’ return to League Two and give themselves a welcome shot in the arm as they look to pull off a Houdini Act and get out of the relegation play-off spot.
Were it not for the long list of sanctions issued for matters out with the players’ control, they would be fighting an altogether different battle in pursuit of promotion. Time spent pondering that alternative reality is time wasted, however.
With Cove Rangers three just three points ahead in eighth and East Fife only two better off, survival is well within reach.
Whether front man Oli Shaw can hit the goal trail once again will go a long way to determining how things play out.
The league’s top scorer was reportedly the subject of an offer from Premiership-bound St Johnstone in the January transfer window. Goodness knows how Hamilton managed to hold on to him, but the odds are that the former Hibs striker will fetch a hefty fee in the summer.
Four goals over the next six weeks would see him hit 20 for the season. The last Accies player to reach that landmark was a fresh-faced Stevie May in 2012/13. Kudos to anyone who remembered that.
Accies — quite literally — cannot afford to be playing fourth-tier football next year. This is a club which has spent much of the past year on its knees, and let’s face it, there’s only so much more pain it can be expected to take.
Two sides looking to step up to League One are Spartans and East Kilbride, who will go head-to-head in Edinburgh this afternoon in a contest which may well decide the destination of the title.
The visitors hold a one-point advantage over the top of the table, thanks in no small part to a remarkable seven-game winning run which was finally halted by Stranraer a fortnight ago.
It’s hard to believe the club were plying their trade in the Lowland League this time last year.
Manager Mick Kennedy recently admitted that he would have ‘bitten your hand off’ to be in this position after going down 6-0 at home to this weekend’s opponents back in January.
Spartans probably can’t believe how things have panned out since then either.
They, much like East Kilbride, have lofty ambitions. This is just their third campaign in the SPFL, but having fallen short of promotion in 2024 after going down to Dumbarton in the play-off final and then narrowly missing out on a top-four finish last time out, are a club understandably growing somewhat impatient.
Today’s fixture is quite firmly in the must-not-lose category if they are to have any chance of going up automatically at the fourth time of asking.
