The Championship is the tightest league in the SPFL in terms of the title race and Hamilton Accies are well aware that two wins in their next two games would give their hopes of coming out on top a terrific boost come May.
Alex Neil’s second placed side face third placed Falkirk away this weekend before travelling to Dens Park next Saturday to play leaders Dundee.
Wins in both games would put the New Douglas Park side at the top of the table and the significance of the games is not lost on attacking midfielder Ali Crawford.
The 22-year-old said: “The next two games are massive. It would be good not to beaten in either of them but picking up maximum points from them would be terrific.”
The Accies were not listed as favourites in the pre-season stakes and that was no surprise to Crawford as no-one in Lanarkshire was talking like that either.
Crawford explained: “Promotion and League titles were not really mentioned during the summer or at the start of the season however when we started doing well it was spoken about. That has continued the longer the season has gone on and hopefully it will continue right until the end of the season.”
The Accies started the campaign very well to announce their arrival as promotion challengers with Crawford saying: “We won five out of our first six Championship games and drew the other one with Dundee and that had everyone here excited. We lost one to Alloa but recovered to have a second good run before having a disappointing spell in November.”
We have won our last two games against Morton and Queen of the South which have both been at New Douglas Park so hopefully that is a very good sign that we have bounced back.”
Crawford added: “We have been playing a lot better in the last couple of games and I am enjoying my role in midfield although I know that we will be severely tested by Falkirk.”
The Lanarkshire side have a ‘played two and won two’ success rate against the Bairns this season with a 2-1 success at the Falkirk Stadium back in August and then a 2-0 home win in October.
Crawford said: “We have beaten Falkirk twice this season so hopefully we can complete the hat-trick this weekend. In the first game we were losing 1-0 but came back to win 2-1 and that was a pretty good feeling.”
It was actually a very good feeling for Crawford who added: “I scored the winner at the Falkirk Stadium and it was one of the best goals I have scored. I curled the ball home from 25 yard and in terms of the goals I have scored it was up there with the best. My favourite one prior to that was the one I hit against Partick Thistle in last season’s Scottish Communities League Cup when we beat them 1-0.”
There will be tough opposition to shine against in this game as Crawford explained: “Falkirk are on a decent run just now and they will view this as a game that they can win to get right into the heart of the title race. Mark Millar is staying with them on loan from Dundee United and that is a good move by Falkirk as he has given them confidence in their midfield.”
“Mark did not play in the earlier games so that could make things more difficult for us.”
Crawford is another graduate of the Youth Programme at Hamilton and he has gained experience in a new way in the past year after long serving manager Billy Reid left last spring.
“I have been with Hamilton for 7 years now and of course experienced my first managerial change last year when Billy left,” said Crawford before adding, “Alex Neil stepped up from being our skipper and player coach to being the manager so whilst not a great deal has changed, some things have.”
“One difference is that the new boss gives you a lot more freedom to do things on the ball. You are encouraged to do that as long as you get back into position if we lose the ball.”
Crawford added: “I am happy to be working under him as the player/ manager however he has not been a player much recently due to an injury. We do miss him on the park but also we do not as it gives other players the chance to show what they can do.”
“The last couple of games we have done okay without him and hopefully that will continue as he is out for a few more weeks yet.”
Once Hamilton have played Falkirk things do not get any easier for them with another tough fixture on the horizon with Crawford saying: “After Falkirk we have Dundee and that is another tough game. We will be out to make amends for a 3-0 defeat at our place the last time the side met. The final score-line was harsh on us as the game was much closer than that.”
“They were winning and we went chasing things late on and lost two goals from set-pieces. Both goals were avoidable from our point of view.”
Crawford was asked what promotion would mean to him and he said: “I would love to get back to the top-flight. I played 10 or 11 games there when Hamilton were last there. It would be amazing to get back to the highest level of possible.”
“Showcasing your talents in the Premiership would be terrific.”
This season it is not only the title winners that get promoted with play-offs between the Premiership and Championship introduced for the first time however Crawford is not thinking that far ahead.
Crawford said: “The Play-offs seem a long way round to get promoted with third placed side playing the fourth side home and away. The winner of that then plays the second placed side and the winner then faces a side from the SPL.”
“However that is not something I am going to worry about just now. There is a lot of hard work left in our season before we can even think about anything like that. The next two games are vital and everyone at Hamilton knows that if we do well in them then we have a real chance of doing something a bit special this season.”
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