IT MAY be galling for a club as steeped in history as Hamilton Academicals (they were formed in 1874, some 14 years before Celtic) to be regarded as interlopers in the highest echelon of the Scottish game. Yet it's been two decades since their last brief appearance in the top flight and you need to go back to the 1940s to find the last time they spent two consecutive seasons there.
Those most dispassionate of pundits, the odds-layers for your local turf accountant, have confidently installed Billy Reid's team as the favourites for demotion and a cursory glance at their squad list would explain why.
Only the nomadic James Gra
dy, now in his 38th year, and winger Mark Corcoran, released following an unproductive spell with St Mirren, have sampled life in the SPL.
As Alan Hansen once said (and then wished he hadn't), you'll win nothing with kids. Accies midfielder James McArthur hopes the Lanarkshire club will be the latest to prove him wrong.
"We have a young team with a lot of energy and we intend to be a breath of fresh air for the SPL," said the 20-year-old.
"Obviously, we plan to stay up but, at the same time, we'll be looking to get the ball down and show what we can do.
"In the cups last season we beat Kilmarnock and lost to Aberdeen and Dundee United but we were the better team in our match at Pittodrie. What we learned from that last match in particular is that we need to be more ruthless.
"To be honest, though, I think we'll be okay with the step up. Most of our lads haven't played in the top division before and I believe that can work to our advantage.
"We've spoken about it and our top scorer, big Richie Offiong, in particular, will cause opposing teams problems. Most people won't know about his pace.
"We'll have the element of surprise. People won't know what to expect from the likes of myself, James McCarthy and Brian Easton and that should help us for the first half of the season.
"Our first objective in every game will be to stop the other team from playing and then we can start to impose our own style on them.
"That was what won us promotion and we'll definitely have the same work-rate and hunger and desire to win this season.
"We've got nothing to lose. Everyone has us as the favourites to be relegated but we're okay with that.
"It'll be hard for us, though. How do you deal with playing in front of 60,000 fans? I think we'll cope with it but it's going to be exciting."
McArthur views the countdown to his side's opening match against Dundee United at New Douglas Park with the wide-eyed anticipation of a child in the week before Christmas.
"I've watched players like Barry Ferguson since I was a kid and to compete against him on a regular basis will be a dream come true," he said.
"People like him and Paul Hartley are your role models so I'm dying to see how well I can do against them and taking part in those matches can only benefit me as a player because I'll learn things from all of them.
"We have practically the same group of players as last season and I think that's important. We had a fantastic team spirit then and we'll need it more than ever in the months to come because we're obviously not going to win as many games.
"We came up at exactly the right time because a lot of guys in our team want to go further in the game and, with no disrespect to the First Division, there's only so much you can learn in the SFL."
Since signing with the Braveheart agency, McArthur is guaranteed free entry (without queuing) to the country's most fashionable night clubs and concerts but, to Reid's relief, he's determined to stay on the right side of the velvet rope.
"Last year the squad had a few nights out together and my manager, Barry Hughes, arranged everything for us," he said.
"If any player wants to go to a particular night club then he always makes sure they're on the guest list. It's a great perk but I don't think you'll find too many of us taking advantage of it this season.
"I know that I'll be cutting down on my nights out because the coming season is so important. That's the kind of sacrifice you need to make.
"All my friends can go out drinking on a Saturday night but I'll stay in – and any of my mates would swap places with me if they could have the chance of being paid to play football for a living."
The full article contains 809 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
