Hamilton Academical F.C.

Hamilton Academical
Full name Hamilton Academical Football Club
Nickname(s) The Accies
Founded 1874 (1874)
Ground New Douglas Park,
Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Capacity 6,018[1]
Chairman Ronnie MacDonald[2]
Manager Martin Canning
League Scottish Premiership
2017–18 Scottish Premiership, 10th of 12
Website Club website

Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, are a Scottish football club from Hamilton in South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Premiership, having been promoted from the 2013–14 Scottish Championship. They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilton Academy and remain the only professional club in British football to have originated from a school team. Hamilton have won the Scottish Challenge Cup twice and have finished runners-up in the Scottish Cup twice. The club currently play their home games at New Douglas Park.

Club history

Hamilton Academical F.C. was formed in late 1874 by the rector and pupils of Hamilton Academy. The club soon became members of the Scottish Football Association and initially began competing in the Scottish Cup and Qualifying Cup, before joining the Scottish Football League in November 1897 following the resignation of Renton.[3]

In the 1970s, Hamilton briefly resigned from the league due to mounting debts.[4] In 1994 the club sold its home ground, Douglas Park, to Sainsbury's supermarket, and subsequently ground-shared in Coatbridge and Glasgow for seven years.[4] During this period the club went through financial hardships and unpaid players went on strike.[4] As a result, Hamilton was unable to fulfil its fixtures during the 1999–2000 season and were docked 15 points, the eventual result of which was relegation to the Third Division.[4] The club moved into its New Douglas Park stadium in 2001.[4]

In 2008, for the first time in 20 years, Accies gained promotion to the top division of Scottish football, the Scottish Premier League. In the 2009–10 season, a 3–0 victory against Kilmarnock on 17 April 2010 secured a third straight season in Scotland's top flight with four games remaining.[5]

The Accies' stay in the SPL ended in the 2010–11 season, when they were relegated after a 1–0 defeat away to St Johnstone.[6] Despite their relegation, Hamilton's time in the top flight was most notable for their emphasis on youth, including midfielders James McCarthy and James McArthur, both of whom went on to play for English club Wigan Athletic in the Premier League before gaining international recognition.

Return to the Premiership

After a hard-fought campaign during the 2013–14 Scottish Championship season, Accies finished in second position on the final day of the season following a 10–2 home victory over Morton. Despite the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion to Dundee, they went on to defeat Falkirk 2–1 on aggregate in the first stage of their Premiership play-off to face top-flight Hibernian over two legs for a place in the 2014–15 Scottish Premiership. Hamilton lost the first leg 2–0 at New Douglas Park, but two away goals in the return leg at Easter Road, including an injury time strike, forced the tie to extra time and penalty-kicks. Hamilton converted all of their spot-kicks and gained promotion back to the top flight.[7] Manager Alex Neil left the club in January 2015, to take up a position at English club Norwich.[8][9]

Hamilton found themselves in another playoff at the end of 2016–17, this time as the Premiership incumbents. A close tie against Championship representatives Dundee United ended in a 1–0 aggregate victory, with Accies youth graduate Greg Docherty scoring the only goal.[10]

2017 fraud incident

In October 2017, an elaborate voice phishing fraud was perpetrated on Hamilton Academical.[11][12] Posing as a fraud investigator for the club's bank (Royal Bank of Scotland), the culprit convinced the club's account handler that funds were at risk from corruption within the company and should be moved temporarily, providing instructions to evade suspicion in the bank's genuine checks when monies began to be transferred.[13] The account handler also spoke to an accomplice via a telephone number provided by the main culprit to 'confirm' the legitimacy of the instructions.[13] With the employee sufficiently deceived, a total of close to £1 million was transferred out of the club's accounts over several transactions, with the fraud being discovered the following day.[12] The incident involved most of the club's working funds, causing the abandonment of a project to improve the youth academy.[11]

In February 2018, having only been able to recover a small percentage of their funds, Hamilton publicly declared that they were preparing to take legal action against the bank for a portion of the loss, believing the bank's security measures to have been inadequate in detecting the fraud (due to the unusual pattern of the transactions and the large sums involved);[12][14] RBS refuted this but stated they were working with the club and the police to identify those responsible.[12][14] The Accies chief executive Colin McGowan later described RBS as "morally bankrupt" after he was informed during discussions to prevent future losses that the bank's system did not allow customers to set daily transfer limits.[15]

Stadium

New Douglas Park, home of Hamilton Academical

The club play their fixtures at New Douglas Park, which was opened in 2001. The pitch is an artificial surface, one of three in the top flight alongside Almondvale (Livingston) and Rugby Park (Kilmarnock). The stadium has an overall capacity of 6,018 and is composed of two permanent and one temporary stand.

The ground replaced Douglas Park, which was the home of Hamilton from 1888 to 1994. The ground was eventually sold to supermarket chain Sainsbury's in 1994, with the proceeds going towards the construction of the new stadium, which lies adjacent to the site of Douglas Park.

Between 1994 and 2001 the club had no home. They ground-shared at Cliftonhill and Firhill Stadium.

Honours

Chart of yearly table positions of The Accies in the Scottish league.

Club records

Match records

  • Record victory: 10–2 vs. Morton (May 2014)[17][18]

Transfer records

Players

Current squad

As of 18 September 2018[20]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 England GK Gary Woods
2 England DF Aaron McGowan
3 Scotland DF Scott McMann
4 Scotland DF Ziggy Gordon
5 Democratic Republic of the Congo MF Delphin Tshiembe
6 England DF Matthew Kilgallon
7 Scotland MF Dougie Imrie (club captain)
8 England MF Aaron Smith
9 England FW Rakish Bingham
10 Scotland FW James Keatings
11 England FW Mickel Miller
12 England MF Tom Taiwo
13 Cyprus DF Alex Gogić
16 England FW Mason Bloomfield (on loan from Norwich City)
17 Wales DF Alex Penny
No. Position Player
18 Scotland MF Darian MacKinnon (team captain)
20 England GK Jacob Marsden
21 Scotland DF Shaun Want
22 England MF Kieran Monlouis
23 Scotland GK Ryan Fulton
25 Scotland MF Scott Martin
26 England MF Sam Kelly
27 Scotland DF George Stanger
28 Scotland MF Lewis Smith
29 Scotland MF Jack Breen
30 Scotland FW Steven Boyd
31 Norway FW Fredrik Brustad (on loan from Molde)
46 Germany DF Lennard Sowah
99 Greece FW Marios Ogkmpoe
— Scotland FW Ryan Tierney

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
14 Scotland FW Ross Cunningham (on loan at Forfar Athletic)
15 Scotland MF Ronan Hughes (on loan at Stirling Albion)

Player of the Year

YearWinner
2004Scotland Brian McPhee[21]
2009Czech Republic Tomáš Černý[22]
2013Scotland Ziggy Gordon[23]

Captains

The following is a list of the officially appointed captains of the Hamilton Academical first-team.

NameNationYearsNotesRef
Alex Neil Scotland2005–2014Finished captaincy to become player-manager[24]
Martin Canning Scotland2014–2015Finished captaincy to become player-manager[25]
Michael McGovern Northern Ireland2015–2016Signed for Norwich City[26]
Michael Devlin Scotland2016–2018Signed for Aberdeen[26]
Dougie Imrie Scotland2018–[27]

Former players

Coaching staff

As of 1 June 2018[28]
RoleName
ManagerScotland Martin Canning
Assistant ManagerFrance Guillaume Beuzelin
Goalkeeping CoachScotland Brian Potter
Striker CoachTrinidad and Tobago Jason Scotland
Director of Youth FootballScotland Allan Maitland
Head of Youth AcademyScotland George Cairns
Equipment ManagerScotland Danny Cunning
PhysiotherapistsScotland Alastair Callender
Scotland Rory Jack
Sports ScientistsScotland Kevin Symon
Scotland Sunnan Shah

Managers

 

References

  1. ↑ "Hamilton Academical Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Contact « Hamilton Academical Football Club". www.hamiltonacciesfc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  3. ↑ "Accies News". Hamilton Academical F.C. 26 February 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Alex Anderson (3 April 2014). "Hamilton Academical prospering with frugal ethos". When Saturday Comes. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  6. ↑ Bradley, Paul (10 May 2011). "St Johnstone 1–0 Hamilton". BBC News.
  7. ↑ Lindsay, Clive. "Hamilton Academical ended their three-year absence from Scotland's top flight after a dramatic penalty shootout that consigned Hibernian to relegation". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Alex Neil: Norwich City appoint Hamilton player-manager as boss". 9 January 2015 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  10. ↑ "Hamilton 1–0 Dundee United". BBC Sport. 28 May 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  11. 1 2 "Hamilton Accies shelve £200k youth academy plan after being hit by near £1m scam". Daily Record. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Hamilton Accies plan to sue RBS after £1m vishing fraud". BBC News. 6 February 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  13. 1 2 Chris Clements (6 February 2018). "Hamilton Accies scam: How club finances were wrecked by lie". STV. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  14. 1 2 Chris Clements (6 February 2018). "Hamilton Accies plan legal action against RBS over £1m scam". STV. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "Hamilton Accies say RBS are 'morally bankrupt' in hard-hitting swipe at bank". Daily Record. 22 March 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  16. ↑ "Hamilton Accies 2–0 Clyde". www.news.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  17. ↑ Kenny Crawford (3 May 2014). "Hamilton 10 – 2 Morton". BBC Sport. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "Accies 10 (Ten) Morton 2". Hamilton Academical F.C. 3 May 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  19. 1 2 "Club History". Hamilton Academical F.C. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  20. ↑ [hhttps://www.hamiltonacciesfc.co.uk/squad-numbers-2/ "Squad Numbers"]. Hamilton Academical F.C. 9 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  21. ↑ Hamilton Academical official website – Forfar 0 Accies 4 15/05/04
  22. ↑ Hamilton Academical official website – UCD 1 Accies 2
  23. ↑ "@acciesfc Twitter Player of the Year". Hamilton Academical F.C. 6 May 2013.
  24. ↑ Ben Mouncer (9 January 2015). "PROFILE: NEW CANARIES BOSS ALEX NEIL". Norwich City F.C. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  25. ↑ "Hamilton captain Martin Canning tells club's youngsters to use Premiership season as a springboard". Daily Record. 4 July 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  26. 1 2 "Michael Devlin: 'I'm ready for captaincy at Hamilton Accies'". BBC Sport. 1 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  27. ↑ "Hamilton captain Dougie Imrie says defence must improve". Daily Record. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  28. ↑ "First Team « Hamilton Academical Football Club".
  29. ↑ "Hamilton Academical: Martin Canning becomes new manager". 23 January 2015 – via www.bbc.co.uk.

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