Accies are just champion!

The Irn-Bru SFL First Division championship was finally won last weekend and Hamilton Accies will take the step up to join the big boys. In what has been a remarkable season for Billy Reid’s side, they will be playing top flight football for the first time since the late 1980’s.

And it has been a success built on laying solid foundations and sheer hard graft. You couldn’t help but admire the way Hamilton went about their business this season, playing with a young but experienced side. The old heads, as it were, include goalkeeper Bryn Halliwell, who has played SPL football with Dunfermline and had previously narrowly missed out on promotion from the First Division with Clyde in 2004.

In midfield, to compliment youngsters James McCarthy and McCarthur, more on whom later, they have former Falkirk man Stuart Taylor and ex St Johnstone star Simon Mensing, who also played for Reid with Clyde. The 35 year old has relished the challenge of this season and has helped banish memories of last season, as his Saints side lost the league title in the very last minute, ironically at New Douglas Park.

And the man who denied them, the evergreen James Grady, also pitched up at Accies in January having left Gretna in January. A player who has seen plenty of Premier League action has provided yet more invaluable experience to a Hamilton team who have come of age this term.

And it is chairman Ronnie McDonald’s decision to lay out and maintain a successful youth policy which has paved the way for this success. The team is packed with young players. Defenders Brian Easton and David Elebert, at 20 and 22 years old respectively, have been prominent figures in the league’s most miserly defence, which has only conceded 3 league goals at home.

But it is in midfield that houses two of Hamilton’s crown jewels. 17 year old McCarthy has simply excelled since debuting last season and has become a regular for Hamilton’s first team. He courted controversy by opting to play for the Republic of Ireland rather than Scotland, but he has had a superb season and is being courted by big name clubs such as Liverpool, Chelsea and Reading. There is no doubt that the starlet can go on and shine on the big stage.

In the same vein, his namesake McCarthur has also had a splendid season. I saw him completely run the midfield in a 1-1 draw between Dunfermline and Accies this season, and he is still only 20 years old. He has now been capped at under 21 level for Scotland, which is just rewards for both player and club.

And, up front, the impressive Richard Offiong is the league’s top marksman with 19 goals, and even drew applause from Dunfermline fans with a magnificent solo goal in a 5-0 romp in Fife. A strong, targetman like figure, Offiong is also very quick and skilfull and I have no doubt he can score goals at a higher level.

I could go on, but you get the general idea. Accies are a real team- not one player stands out from everyone else, just a team packed full of very talented ones. And a team that hopefully Reid, deservedly the manager of the year in Scotland, can keep together and give it a good go ‘upstairs’.

4,940 watched the coronation against Clyde last weekend, which is a far cry from the dark days in the 1990s when Accies were homeless and playing games at Firhill, and sufferring relegation to Division Three as recently as 2000 when players refused to play a match at Stenhousemuir having not been paid. The club were docked 15 points and were relegated. Indeed, the club’s future looked bleak.

But its been a stunning turn-around, and chairman Ronnie McDonald deserves huge credit. Accies now have a good stadium, a fantastic youth system, are on a sound financial footing and now, an SPL manager and an SPL team.

The sky could be the limit for Hamilton, and I’m sure messers Reid and McDonald are plotting their assault on the big boys already. For now, the club’s fans can bask in the glory, and if any club’s fans deserve to, its the loyal followers of Hamilton, a town blighted by support to Rangers and Celtic.

Hopefully some of those will forget Glasgow’s gruesome twosome and go and watch the team on their doorstep who have entertained the First Division fantastically this season.