DoF Gerry Strain addresses fan fury after Morton defeat and why club will stick by gaffer
Hamilton Accies director of football Gerry Strain has insisted both he and manager John Rankin are going nowhere after angry fans called for them to be sacked amid the club’s relegation battle.
Accies recorded their ninth defeat in their last 11 Championship games on Saturday when they suffered a late capitulation to Morton in 2-0 loss at New Douglas Park.
At the full-time whistle, angry Accies fans turned towards the directors box and owner Seref Zengin, calling for Strain and Rankin to be axed.
It is not the first time fans have vented their fury this season, with a banner calling for Rankin’s exit ahead of February’s Scottish Cup last 16 exit to St Johnstone.
The club are currently sitting one point off of the relegation spot and six off automatic relegation, with seven games to go.
While Strain admits he understands the fans are frustrated with recent results and he accepts their concerns, he insists the performances of the club have deserved more this season.
He stressed the club has no intention of making any changes, in a week where rivals Queen’s Park and Dunfermline – sides sitting either side of Accies in the table – have sacked their managers.
Strain told Lanarkshire Live Sport: “I completely understand the fans’ frustrations. Every single person at the club feels the same frustrations and shares the same emotional rollercoaster, but the reality is that where we are in the league is not too far away from where the budget suggests we would be.
“As I understand it we’ve got the second lowest budget in the league and a squad depleted by long term injuries to key personnel in key areas, but we want to perform to a level beyond the financial limitations upon us.
“Are we in a better place now than when Seref bought the club in 2023? Absolutely because we inherited the club after being relegated for the second time in three years with only six registered senior players and we are now five places above where we were last season in League One. Despite it only being small progress, nonetheless it’s progress.
“Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not, we wanted to be pushing at the other end of the table.
“But we are all in it together, nobody is going anywhere. This isn’t just my opinion, it’s the shared and unanimous opinion of the owner and our board of directors.
“We have been unfortunate this season in that three or four clubs have invested massively to win promotion.
“The likes of Livingston, Falkirk, Partick and Ayr United have all made a fist of it and that is why there has been a number of players we tried to get that we’ve missed out on.
“We are not happy or comfortable with where we find ourselves. I appreciate there are only two wins out of 11 games but the performances haven’t been dreadful week in, week out.”
Rankin oversaw the club’s relegation to League One in 2022/23 but took the club straight back up last season via the play-offs with a comfortable win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the final.
The former Dundee United midfielder also led Accies to their first cup win in 30 years when they lifted the 2022/23 SPFL Trust Trophy.
Strain says there are contributing factors in their failure to hit those heights.
He said: “Context is everything. We have had serious injury issues and we haven’t had a settled defence all season.
“On Saturday we had two left-backs, two right centre-backs and a right-back sitting in the stand. Kyle MacDonald came off injured in the first half, we have Steven Bradley playing through an injury and Ben Williamson is out for the season.
“The perception is that we have a massive squad, but we don’t have a massive available squad. We have got a threadbare one and you could see that on Saturday.
“It is key positions that are affected and we can’t seem to buy a goal for love nor money when we have created clear enough goal scoring opportunities.
“The reason John is still the manager is because the board collectively think he is the right man for the club, based on the model that the club has.
“John has had to take us through one of the most turbulent times in the club’s history and he actually understands the reality of the internal situations at club because of that.
“He has had to deal with the wage situation earlier in the season [where players walked out after a banking error delayed their pay], a change in key personnel, the stadium acquisition, all sorts of things.
“We are still going through a transitional period right now with the new ownership and our commitment to continued growth off the field.
“The board review the performance of the football department regularly and we consider everything in great detail.
“We feel that the performances the players are putting in – although we aren’t winning at the moment – suggest the players are certainly playing for John.
“Against Falkirk [in a 2-2 draw] we were seconds away from three points. We played the league leaders off the park and we fought them off the park.”
