JUST what are we going to do with pesky Hamilton Accies? They just won’t go away, will they?

Every time you think, right, surely that’s them down, they bounce back up from the dead like Zebedee on Red Bull. I know that will be the thoughts of many football fans of rival clubs and, no doubt, within a few boardrooms in the Premiership.

I admit I have thought the same in the past. Get them out the big league and get the likes of Dundee United or Falkirk – bigger clubs with more supporters – back in the Premiership. But I genuinely don’t think that way any longer.

That sneering, pompous attitude towards Accies and their small but loyal band of supporters has been replaced by a real admiration and recognition as to the way they go about their business, year in, year out. For a club of their size, it is a remarkable story.

The faith and bravery they have in young football players and the opportunities that they give them should never be frowned upon. They are an important club in the overall future of Scottish football simply because of the number of youngsters they blood.

It is a great place for parents to send their kids, knowing that if they are good enough, no matter what age they are, they will get a crack at making it in senior football.

I played in the Championship for Dunfermline the season Hamilton won the title back in 2007/08 and you could already see the blueprint and vision the club had for the future.

A little-known 16-year-old called James McCarthy destroyed us at East End Park one day, ably assisted by his 19-year-old midfield partner, James McArthur. Brian Easton was another youngster to play that day and move on to a big club in England. It is a club with a fantastic youth policy willing to give youngsters a chance.

Those three guys alone went on to play over 100 games at the Accies before making the club a fortune, not only in transfer fees, but also sell-on clauses.

The money they made kept the club afloat. But that was all reward for having the foresight to give the players an opportunity. Youngsters need the chance to play in the first team or how will you ever know if they are good enough?

They had, back then, not only a manager in Billy Reid who was brave enough to stick them in, but a board of directors with the patience to look beyond results and give these boys and the manager time to flourish.

They now have a manager in Martin Canning who has been afforded that same time. By the way Hamilton have started the season that looks a good decision. To be brutally honest, Canning has looked a dead man walking at various times in his fledgling Hamilton management career. A horrendous run of 12 games without a win last season, including an 8-1 thrashing at Celtic, would have seen most managers bulleted. 

However, the Hamilton board stood by him, something for which they must take immense credit. They were repaid when he led them to safety in the play-offs. I was delighted for Canning that day because he took some unbelievable abuse at times from his own punters. I don’t think he got the credit he deserved.

Hamilton probably have the lowest budget in the division, so keeping them in the Premiership is a great feat. Every season they bring in unheard-of journeymen from around the globe on one-year contracts, much of the time to assist the promising young talent. Having to knit them all together requires a great degree of skill.

Canning and Guillaume Beuzelin, my old team-mate, have managed that superbly. Oh, and who scored the vital goal in that second leg of the play-off final against Dundee United? Greg Docherty. Now 20, they brought him to the club as a nine-year-old and developed him through the system at Accies. What an advert that is for any young kid and his parents when they are looking at a club for their child to join. He and Scott McMann look like the next two off the Hamilton conveyor belt to go to a higher level.

I was at Easter Road a week past Saturday and Docherty in particular looked fantastic. He ran a Scottish international and a very highly-rated John McGinn ragged. It was no surprise that on the Monday morning he signed a new deal at Accies. Maybe the chairman heard me raving about him on the radio in the car home.

Hamilton have started the season really well and sit in the lofty position of 4th in the table. Already they are seven points clear of Partick Thistle and six in front of Kilmarnock and Dundee.

They have been consigned to 12th place or at best 11th by every pundit in the land, including yours truly. Having seen them the last few weeks, I wouldn’t mind going back on that prediction. Not only have they started strongly, but, even if they do go on the slide towards the dreaded drop zone, you know they are battle-hardened in that position.

Other clubs will panic and sack the manager as they sink slowly down the table and players will lose their nerve, but that won’t happen with Hamilton. They have the experience from the last few seasons of looking down the barrel and not blinking. Like an old pack of hungry dogs, they know the places they need to go to survive. Who would bet against them defying the odds again?