There may be disappointment among their playing staff at the departure of Alex Neil but Hamilton Accies expect a seamless transition as they seek to maintain their place at the top end of the Premiership table.

 

There was not a trace of disrespect for either the contribution of the out-going manager or to his integrity in terms of what was expected of him, but Ronnie MacDonald, the club's vice chairman, explained yesterday that they have been preparing for his departure since the day he was appointed.

That process intensified in the middle of last year and, having been through this situation several times now, MacDonald is entitled to express confidence that processes which are under-pinned by sound philosophy will keep the club on track.

"Even when Alex was there I still had a short-list," said MacDonald. "You've got to have a what-if plan and I had it underway as soon as we got promoted to the Premiership."

There are, then, unlikely to be left-field appointments as the club seeks to replace both Neil and his assistant, Frankie McAvoy, who is joining him in moving to Sky Bet Championship club Norwich City.

"Everyone who's ever worked for me are people I've known," MacDonald noted. "I prefer people that I know have the proper attitude and I believe we have a well-established model here, so hopefully we'll make another good appointment."

He can say so having made a string of them in the past. Great pride is rightly taken from what has been achieved by the likes of Allan Maitland, who now runs the thriving youth academy, his successor as manager, Billy Reid - who, as MacDonald put it, "was manager of the year, unbelievably" - and now Neil, while Graeme Jones, formerly Reid's assistant manager, is now performing that role for Roberto Martinez at Everton.

The ethos that permeates the club was expressed impressively by Neil on New Year's Day following the 5-0 thrashing of Lanarkshire neighbours Motherwell, which probably went a long way towards confirming the thought processes of Delia Smith and Co.

Asked if he was fearful that the transfer window might cost him key players, Neil responded by saying he welcomed attention to his squad, seeing that as a tribute to the way they were performing and talking with genuine enthusiasm about hoping that opportunities would arrive for them to go on to what he described as bigger and better things.

Now the 33-year-old is himself a beneficiary of that mentality with goodwill and gratitude the over-riding sentiments from the board.

"It is exceptional what Alex has done, but we're delighted he's been given this opportunity and that Frankie, who has been working with him, is getting the chance as well," said MacDonald.

"We want them to be able to have these chances in a way that doesn't happen at all clubs. These are life-changing opportunities which people in whatever field would be looking for. The chance to be the best they can be. We want to give them that chance."

Not everyone would be that magnanimous but MacDonald is profoundly realistic about the environment in which Accies are operating.

Unable to fill their ground, which has a capacity of less than 7,000, for that holiday derby meeting with Motherwell at a time when they are playing the sort of football that any true supporter of a club would love to see, their task is to unearth talent, expose it and constantly nurture replacements.

Once again MacDonald assesses that situation without resentment or recrimination, recognising that much of the local identity was lost during the period at the end of the last century, when financial problems left them homeless and ultimately unable to fulfil fixtures when players went on strike.

"We need to rebuild a base of support through our schools and our community programmes, which we think are working well. We would rather build the support that way and it's part of our strategy to be even more involved with the schools," he said.

Those who are persuaded will be encouraged to buy into a philosophy that is based upon mutual encouragement.

"I would rather have 2500 coming along and supporting us than have 10,000 abusing us," said MacDonald.

They will also be introduced to a mentality that is based upon pragmatism, as is made clear when the matter of the growing discussion about the possibility of Hamilton heading into Europe is raised.

"When we were doing well at the start of the season and it first came up I said I had booked for Crete in June so I would definitely be going, but the boys are just pleased to be doing well in the Premiership and we don't really speculate beyond that," was MacDonald's wry response.

"It's my job to keep everyone level, but hopefully they will keep going as well as they are."