Gary Doctor says SWPL1 rivals will look down their noses at his Accies Women side this season, but that both motivates and takes the pressure off of them.
Accies kick off their SWPL Cup group stages campaign against Spartans at Ainslie Park on Sunday, with home ties against Glasgow City and Glasgow Women to follow.
The Accies boss says his side won’t be expected to achieve anything in the top flight, set to kick-off next month, or the cup competition this season, but that could work in their favour.
He said: “We’re really up against it, whether it’s in the league or the cup, against the Premier League 1 teams now.
“More and more of these clubs are putting significant investment in, that we simply don’t have, and can’t match.
“I think that puts pressure on them to deliver, because they went down that route.
“The pressure’s off us, we can go and relax and enjoy it, knowing that we’ll do all we can within our parameters and just enjoy it.
“Everybody will be looking down their noses at us, and we just need to get out there, stick together and produce performances consistently that could get us results and maybe spring some surprises along the way.”
Doctor added: “Any match we play won’t have anywhere near the anxiety and pressure that we had in those eight games when we were looking to get promoted, and the expectation was that we would win those matches.
“That should hopefully bring about a different type of performance from us – still with the same focus and desire, but maybe with less anxiety hanging over our heads and on our shoulders.”
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