Billy Reid says relegation may be necessary evil

Published on Wednesday 11 May 2011 20:21

Hamilton Accies manager Billy Reid has declared himself excited about the new season and claimed relegation might be a necessary evil to keep his club progressing.

After three seasons - their longest spell in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League - Accies were relegated after Tuesday's 1-0 defeat by St Johnstone.

But in that time, they have sent homegrown talent James McCarthy, James McArthur and Brian Easton to the top level of English football, and achieved a seventh-placed finish after losing just one of their final 13 matches last season.

The free-flowing style favoured by Reid suffered with the departures of McArthur and James Wesolowski and skipper Alex Neil labouring to recover from summer hip surgery.

Reid lamented his side's concession of 15 penalties and seven red cards after Liam Craig netted from the spot - and later missed one - following Mark McLaughlin's dismissal at McDiarmid Park on Tuesday. But he has been encouraged by several features of this season, notably the emergence of midfielders Ali Crawford and Grant Gillespie.

Lee Kilday and David Hopkirk are among other young players to have tasted SPL action and Reid will accelerate their progress in the Irn-Bru First Division. It was at that level that McCarthy, McArthur and Easton first rose to prominence.

Neil signed a three-year contract last week and Tomas Cerny, Simon Mensing, Dougie Imrie, McLaughlin, Martin Canning, James Chambers and Jim McAlister are among the more experienced players who remain under contract.

Reid, now Scotland's longest serving manager following the sacking of his friend Alan Maitland by Alloa, said: "The whole club are disappointed but it's been three years of great success, we have moved players on.

"Sometimes a club this size might need to take a step back to try and come forward again. We are starting to breed our own youngsters.

"We have got a great group of young players coming through. I love working with them and it's the only way a club of this size survives, to bring our own youngsters through.

"One thing we guarantee, when we go down we will play in the right manner. We'll get the ball down and play and that's important for the chairman and how we want to build this football club back up again."