Imrie sees extra incentive for Hamilton players against Motherwell

Published 13th Oct 2017

Dougie Imrie says there is an added incentive for Hamilton players to get their season back on track this weekend.

Accies host Motherwell in the first Lanarkshire derby of the season, with Martin Canning's side on the back of a four-match losing run in the league.

A promising start to the Ladbrokes Premiership campaign stalled before the international break with losses to Celtic, Hearts, St Johnstone and Rangers, but Imrie says the players are itching to set the record straight against their local rivals.

We prepare properly for each game, but a local derby is going to be a little extra fire in the belly from both sets of players,'' he said.

There will be players that haven't played in it yet, so they will be looking forward to it as well but for us, we're only thinking of getting the win.

It has the makings of a good game; the fans will be up for it, players will be up for it, so it's a game that both teams will be looking forward to.''

After coming through a challenging run prior to the break, Canning made no secret of the need to target what he sees as a run of winnable games, and Imrie agreed with his manager.

The 34-year-old said: We had a couple of weeks to digest the last month. We know it's not been good enough, albeit in some of the games we've played well and shot ourselves in the foot, similar to last season. The amount of games we were in front and lost silly goals at bad times, but its a chance to get back to winning ways.

The next four games are going to be massive for us. Motherwell, Dundee, Ross County and Partick Thistle are four massive games, but games we can win and the other teams will be thinking the same.

It gives us a chance to start trying to pick up points again.''

He added: If we can get a couple of wins (in the next four) then it's a great first quarter for us.''