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Hamilton Accies fans right to be furious over club's demise
By Craig Fowler
Columnist
@craigfowler86
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Even by Scottish football standards this feels like a particularly prevalent time for custodians being at war with their club's loyal fanbase, especially in the Lanarkshire area.
First there was Motherwell blaming the support for pushing Stuart Kettlewell out, now Hamilton Accies have followed suit. On Friday in this very paper, the Championship side's director of football, Gerry Strain, gave an interview to my colleague Matthew Lindsay defending manager John Rankin after supporters unfurled a banner which read "Three years of failure - Rankin out!" during their Scottish Cup defeat to St Johnstone.
This was painted as the latest example of supporter toxicity going too far in Scottish football and damaging the club. After all, as Strain said, Rankin has a 44.5 win rate from his time in charge, has recently won the SPFL Trust Trophy, and secured promotion at the first time of asking. What was omitted from the defending advocate was that a lot of that win percentage was achieved in League One, a level where, based on recent history, you wouldn't expect Accies to be competing - and were taken down there under Rankin' stewardship in the first place.
There were other parts of the interview which also stood out. It was claimed that when the new owners took over there was no club shop in New Douglas Park, a surprise to anyone who previously picked up a match ticket from the main stand and saw 'for sale' strips hanging all about the place.
There was also talk of generating revenue through different streams, but there's also a lengthy charge sheet of instances where they've failed to secure income in more traditional ways: the opportunity to properly celebrate its 150th anniversary year and make a killing off some rare goodwill was largely bungled; matchday hospitality packages have been cancelled this year, and there is no front of shirt sponsor on the strips.
And speaking of the kit, they're made by owner Seref Zengin's sportswear brand Kurt. The director painted this as a positive; most Accies fans hate the design and complain the quality isn't up to scratch.
While Strain isn't the most popular man with supporters, Zengin still has a lot of credit in the bank after buying the club from Colin McGowan. But that will soon dwindle if communications like Friday's interview continue, because it's something Accies supporters have sadly had to get used to over the past few years. For the best part of a decade now a bitter rift has existed between the fanbase and those in charge, regardless of the individuals involved, and it is threatening the long-term survival of a historic, community club.
The Accies demise hasn't generated much in the way of wider publicity. There have been some barmy stories surrounding the club but largely they haven't penetrated the mainstream. (I could list many, but I'm limited to a 1,000 word count. Just find a Hamilton supporter, buy them a couple of pints and then let the shock and awe wash over you.) There are some exemptions, of course, such as managing to lose £1,000,000 to a telephone fraudster, but largely the travails of a club who recently spent seven-years among the top flight, and won at both Celtic Park and Ibrox, have passed by unnoticed.
I do sometimes wonder if the lack of interest comes from a resentful indifference, or even minor hostility, towards the club from the wider Scottish football community due to their unpopular stint in the top flight.
There was plenty of goodwill after they initially won promotion and played some fearless football under Alex Neil, but that stopped not long after Neil departed for Norwich City. He was replaced by Martin Canning, who stayed in the job four years before being replaced by Brian Rice. Other than a spell at the beginning of Rice's tenure, Accies largely played a negative, defensive-oriented style of football which did little to excite and achieved not much else other than survival.
Focusing on the positives, it was impressive how, time and again, such a limited group could manage to graft and scrap their way to safety. They played the underdog role perfectly and just about everyone else disliked them for it. They were annoying to play against, they were poor to watch and their pitch was a total eyesore any time they appeared on television.
But here's the thing - Accies fans didn't like the style of play either. In fact, they hated it, which was why attendances dropped the longer they defied the odds in the Premiership. Everyone from afar would patronise them and exclaim that Canning (later Rice) was doing a good job to keep such a small club in the league for so long.
And in many ways this was true. But the supporters were bored to tears of what they saw on the park and sick of the limited ambition.
Sure, they were a modest outfit by top-flight standards, but historically they're about the same size as St Johnstone and there wasn't much difference in attendances for Accies' first couple of campaigns amongst the elite. They were certainly a bigger club than Livingston. But while St Johnstone have (at the time of writing) made themselves Scottish Premiership mainstays, won three Scottish Cups and played in Europe several times - and Livingston finished fifth one year and made it to a League Cup final - what did Accies have to show for their time amongst the elite? There was seemingly no real plan to move on to the next level.
Fast forward to the present day, they're playing a similar style of bland football in order to try and stop them from falling into the third tier for the second time in three seasons. And the custodians of the club want to paint this as some sort of positive? It's no wonder Accies fans, or at least those who haven't been pushed away by years of mismanagement, are furious at what they're being subjected to.
by smc4761 » Fri Feb 14, 2025 2:52 pm