Accies and Hibs set for play off showdown
James Delaney (OR)
With the glory of the Scottish Cup final fast disappearing into the rear view mirror, attention turns towards the fight for a place in next season’s Scottish Premiership.
Hibs face Hamilton in a two legged play-off, with the first leg taking place at the Accies New Douglas Park this Wednesday.
The Edinburgh side finished a dismal season with a 1-0 reverse at home to Kilmarnock, meaning they became the first premiership team to compete in the new relegation play-off format. The club have sold out their allocation for Wednesday’s match, with around 3000 Hibees expected to make the journey west, with manager Terry Butcher hoping his side’s preparation for the Accies artificial surface can help his team to victory:
"We’ve trained on Spartans’ pitch in Edinburgh, which is a beautiful astroturf pitch and a lot of the players in our team have played at New Douglas Park anyway.
"Good players can play on any surface and it is all about your first touch and getting the ball under control.
"Hamilton play a very good style of football, they have some tricky players, they are solid and strong. They have a habit of winning matches and scoring lots of goals.
"It probably does because they play and train on there so they are well used to the surface but we will be well prepared”.
Their Lanarkshire opponents have every reason to be in a confident mood. They thrashed already relegated Morton 10-2 on the last day of the regular season, only narrowly missing out on an automatic promotion spot, before overcoming Falkirk in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
And Accies boss Alex Neil has wasted no time piling the pressure on opposite number, Terry Butcher:
"It is hard when you are a manager and things are not going for you.
"I feel for him but at the end of the day I have to look after my team and my job and make sure we do the best that we can.
"But I think the fact that they have not been performing this season and we have been performing well, gives us a good opportunity and we fancy our chances."
The match will be screened live on Sky Sports on Wednesday from 7:30pm.
