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Friday 21st February 2014

Lyon makes a debut in Fife

Hamilton Accies face Livingston tonight in a Friday Night Fixture and New Douglas Park youngster Darren Lyon is hoping to be involved in Player/Manager Alex Neil’s first team for a second game running. Lyon made his long awaited debut last Saturday as a second half substitute in the Accies’ 4-2 success at Stark’s Park against Raith Rovers and judging by the response the 18 year olds debut was welcomed across Scotland. The midfielder said: “It was brilliant to m

Hamilton Accies face Livingston tonight in a Friday Night Fixture and New Douglas Park youngster Darren Lyon is hoping to be involved in Player/Manager Alex Neil’s first team for a second game running.

Lyon made his long awaited debut last Saturday as a second half substitute in the Accies’ 4-2 success at Stark’s Park against Raith Rovers and judging by the response the 18-year-old's debut was welcomed across Scotland.

The midfielder said: “It was brilliant to make my debut after being out for so long as a result of some injuries. I have played in two under-20 games earlier this month and was added to the first team squad for the Raith game.”

Playing in a first team game still seemed a long way off for Lyon as he explained: “I was expecting just to travel through to Kirkcaldy with the team and was not expecting to be involved. I was delighted to just be going through with the team and then my day just got better and better.”

Lyon explained why making his debut meant so much by saying: “I have been at the Accies for 4 years now after being in the Rangers Youth Programme before that. I have a younger brother James who plays with the under-12’s here and everyone was joking that he would get a game before me because of my run of bad luck.”

That joke may be over but a new one has taken its place with Lyon saying: “Everyone is now just joking that James will get more games as he is a better player.”

“My first injury came when I played in the Oban Tournament back in July. I had to go in for an operation to get some cartilage in my knee fixed after that and that kept me out for a couple of months.”

“In my second training session back after that I fractured the fifth metatarsal in a foot and that was me out again. I had simply just gone over on my foot and it turned into a horrible time. “

Lyon added: “Instead of playing in a Scottish Youth Cup tie against Hearts I was off back to hospital for an operation. To make things worse where the fracture took place was in an area where the bone may not have fused together again so I had to get a pin put in so that was another operation.”

To almost add insult to injury Lyon added: “That left me having to wear a moonboot for a few weeks as well. So finally making my debut was terrific.”

News of the sighting of a Lyon in Fife spread throughout Twitter and there were plenty of positive messages with Lyon saying: “It was nice that so many people got in touch on Twitter to talk about me playing. I was not expecting a lot of people to notice that I got a game so it was great to get so many messages.”

“They came from players I had played with and played against. All those great messages added to finally playing made last weekend being a great one.”

However Lyon is hoping not to attract any more attention just through playing as he explained: “I just want to go out now and play as much football as I can. Hopefully me playing in the first team will not be as big an event in the future.”

“I am not going to say that I will be playing in the first team every week as first of all I really need to make my mark in the under-20 side every week. I want to play in the first team as much as I can and it will be a real bonus when I do but I have still got a lot of under-20 football to catch up on.”

Hamilton Accies Manager, Alex neilNot only did Neil give Lyon his debut but he has helped him develop at the club with the Accie explaining: “I am a sitting midfielder and it probably helps me that the boss knows that position inside out.”

“He is great to learn from and helps me a lot by passing on hints and tips by to be fair he knows a lot about all the positions in the team.”

So how was it to finally play first team football Lyon was asked and he said: “It was 4-0 for us at half-time and it was still 4-0 when I went on with 22 minutes left. To be honest I was a bit nervous. The boss had told me to warm up but I did not think too much about it as he told two of the substitutes who were strikers to warm up as well.”

“After I had done that he told me to get ready I was going on.”

“It would have been worse it the game was just 1-0 to us but at 4-0 I was fairly confident that we were going on to win. My nerves did however see me pass the ball straight to a Raith Rovers player with my first touch however I settled down after that.”

Lyon added: “It was a great feeling to be playing in a first team game after four years at the club and so many months out especially as I was expecting to play. I was really happy just to be in the squad.”

“My mum, granddad and uncle had gone to the game hoping but not expecting me to be involved. They were delighted when I was on the bench and even happier when I came on.”

Unfortunately Lyon’s dad did not see him play as the youngster explained: “My dad runs a Boxing Club and he missed the game which was a real shame for him and me. He took me everywhere when I was young and learning how to play football. He missed it as he had some boxers involved in fights on Saturday.”

“There is not any boxing on Friday night so he will be along at the Livingston game. It would be great to be involved again.”

By Craig Stewart

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