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Daily Record
Sport
Andy McGilvray

Hamilton Accies might need to mix it up to get the win at Ayr, says defender

Defender Dan O’Reilly says Hamilton want their first win of the season at Ayr United on Saturday, but warns they might have to mix their game up a bit.

The Honest Men fought back from 2-0 down to beat Queen’s Park 3-2 on Friday, and O’Reilly is conscious of that, but says Accies should have enough about them to win.

The Irishman reckons a first win of the season would be a huge boost for Accies as they eye their next few games.

He said: “We want to go in and win the game, but they’ve had two decent results as well and we have to take that into consideration.

“They were 2-0 down against Queen’s Park and they obviously had that spirit to come from behind and win 3-2, but it’s a game we want to get three points from.

“It’s important not to get sucked into a dog-fight, especially away from home. At their ground they’ll have their fans and it’ll be a different atmosphere.

“It’s important that we try to focus on our game, but we have to be able to mix it up as well.

O'Reilly (right), pictured with Scott Martin, says the result at Thistle was frustrating at the time but was a good one in retrospect (SNS Group)

“You can’t just expect your game-plan to be perfect every week, and you don’t want to get sucked into certain things.

“But we will just be focused on ourselves, and hopefully that will be enough.

“It’s important to stay in the game as long as you can. I think if we keep building on our base of being solid, and taking our chances as well, we have enough creativity in our team to score goals.

“Three points would be massive. You want to get that win as soon as you can, and it would really push us on for the next few weeks.”

Accies drew their opening two league games 1-1 at home to Morton and at Partick Thistle, but O’Reilly reckons they’ve made real progress.

He said: “Getting a red card in the first 45 minutes of the league isn’t ideal, but it showed a bit of character from us as a group.

“That gave us a bit of positivity, going into the game against Thistle, because we knew we could stick together.

“Maybe that was something that was lacking a couple of years ago when we got relegated and stuff.

O'Reilly, who signed from Drogheda United in January, says Accies have shown character and positivity this season (SNS Group)

“We were happy with the result at Thistle in the end. The circumstances, in terms of how late we conceded the goal and stuff was a bit disappointing, but the overall performance was really good.

“To get a point like that away from home is good, and it just builds a bit of momentum, a bit of positivity about the place, and one we want to keep building on.”

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