Hamilton Accies chairman blasts "dreadful" form but will help boss John Rankin bring in signings to beat relegation

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Hamilton Accies chairman Allan Maitland insists they are working hard to bring in new players to help avoid relegation after their “unacceptable” and “dreadful” performances in the Championship this season.The club are six points adrift of Arbroath at the bottom of the table, with a game in hand, after a run of seven straight defeats.Just two league wins have been picked up by boss John Rankin in 20 games so far and Maitland has not held back in his assessment of the club’s displays, which have left them battling to avoid a second relegation in three seasons.However, the Accies chief accepts his manager has been “handicapped” by his squad this season and is determined to help him strengthen further in the coming days.New signings Dylan McGowan and Tom Sparrow have arrived in the past week to shore up the defence and midfield, while work is in progress to bring in a striker.

Maitland knows there is no justifying their string of results this season and he told Lanarkshire Live Sport : “It is not where we want to be and we are doing everything we can to try and reverse it. “I can talk about injuries, this and that, but no matter what way we look at it, our results have been unacceptable.“We need to accept responsibility for that and we are striving to make it better by bringing new players in during the window.“We are also trying to move players on.

Miko Virtanen has now left and we’ve got Dylan McGowan and Tom Sparrow in, with Lucas de Bolle now in the squad playing games again [after a long-term concussion issue].“We are hoping to get various players back from injury as well – and we need to get better, it is as simple as that.“John has been handicapped with what squad he’s had available.“In an average week, we’ve had