Gerry seeks happy return to Hamilton

26/09/12 - GMc: "People will be expecting us to win but you have to earn that."

Saturday is a 'home' game for Pars Assistant Manager Gerry McCabe. He was signed for his local club three times and was Assistant Manager to Iain Munro at Hamilton. He played with them in 1988-89 in the SPL and the 55 year old is expecting a warm welcome since he always gets a good reception there.

As a Hamilton resident he keeps a close eye on his former employers and knows that they are a selling club who have been forced to move good players on. In this week's Scottish Communities Cup games Hamilton and Dunfermline went out to SPL opponents who both snatched their ties in added time. He explained:-

"They have brought on good youngsters and put a lot of emphasis on the youth set up. I watched them against St Mirren in the cup on Tuesday night. They worked hard but I have seen St Mirren better. Accies just sat in there and tried to hit on the break. They had a few chances themselves but suffered the same fate as ourselves against Aberdeen."

Agreeing that Dunfermline can take greater encouragement even in defeat, Gerry continued:-

"We played some great stuff but when you are playing against opposition from a higher league and you don't take your chances, they are always going to get a chance. They started bringing on their more experienced players - Anderson, Hughes, Vernon. They had to be very fortunate going in at half time with it still 0-0.

"To play like that against an SPL team was great. When we came in after the game and you saw how gutted the boys were, that just shows you they knew how much they had put into the game. You could use the word robbed if you like but it felt like we had been mugged at the end."

The Pars performance was another milestone along the road to development and Gerry stressed that consistency is what you need if success is going to be reaped in the First Division. He feels his side have come together well but is not blind to the possibility that Hamilton could be sitting in a false league position:-

"Accies have some decent players with young boys coming through but looking from where we are just now I would be confident that we can go out and take three points on Saturday."

February 2008 - Gerry watched Pars lose 3-0 to a Richard Offiong hattrick

Acknowledging that Hamilton manager Billy Reid watched Dunfermline play Aberdeen, Gerry added:-

"I am sure that he will have gone back impressed by how well we played. He will be drumming that into his players but every game is different. Livingston came here with the reputation of being a passing team but we didn't give them that chance to pass. We matched them and didn't allow them to play. We imposed our game on them and that will be the same on Saturday. We just need to go and win individual battles."

Gerry wouldn't expect Hamilton to shape up the same way as they did against St Mirren - five at the back and four in the middle with one up front:

"I think they will maybe go more attacking since they are at home. They have Steve May on loan from St Johnstone, he didn't play on Tuesday night but he is a good player - we tried to get him here on a couple of occasions - he will be a threat. Then they have Jon McShane who they have now signed from St Mirren.

"But we are looking more settled. At the end of the day it is about what we do; we have players who are on form and hopefully we can keep that going. It is another, different challenge. People will be expecting us to win but you have to earn that."

Josh Falkingham sustained a slight knock and Andy Geggan a dead leg in the Aberdeen game but both are expected to be available to play. The Assistant Manager suggested that if Andy didn't make it it could give Shaun Byrne the chance to step in and display some of the form that has been impressing him this season.

"The good thing is that everybody is kept on their toes. If they are not doing it, somebody else will step in, there is good competition."

In the absence of Jim Jefferies who was at Spartans to watch a bounce game arranged against a Nike Academy team, Gerry confirmed that 18 year old youth player Allan Smith had gone on a one month loan to Brechin City.

"It is great for him because he will be playing at a competitive level. I just hope that he gets the opportunity; it might stretch to three months if he does well but he is one who has been improving. I know it is good for them to play in the Under 20s where they have some experienced players playing with them but for me he will benefit more from playing in the Second Division and come back a better player."