Hamilton Academical

Reegan Mimnaugh: 'Hamilton will always stick by their academy'

| 25 September 2020

Hamilton host Dundee United this weekend.

Hamilton midfielder Reegan Mimnaugh expects the club will stick by their academy no matter the financial consequences of the ongoing measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike the vast bulk of Scottish Premiership clubs, Accies did not sell season tickets in the summer and could be waiting some time to get any gate receipts in following another delay in approving the return of supporters.

Some clubs have already scaled back their youth set-ups amid falling revenues but Hamilton have reaffirmed their commitment to bringing through their own players in recent times.

Mimnaugh was handed his debut in January 2019 and has been a regular this season in Brian Rice's team at the age of 18.

"This academy has been brilliant," he said. "We had an under-17 team who were unbeaten and ended up going to play in the UEFA Youth League at Basel, beat them on penalties. It's massive. George Cairns in there helps you all the way through.

"One of Hamilton's biggest things is their academy and we are always looking to bring young players through. That's our foundation so I think that will be fine here.

"The manager has been brilliant from the word go, he is always keen on helping the academy and looking to bring young players in as you can see, the likes of me, Jamie (Hamilton), Andy (Winter), Kyle Munro, Smithy (Lewis Smith), all the rest of them."

Mimnaugh and his team-mates host Dundee United on Saturday and Rice expects the visitors to arrive full of confidence after they moved into the top six in the Scottish Premiership last weekend.

"I'm expecting an energetic, confident Dundee United team to come here," Rice said.

"They are new to the league and have had a fantastic start.

"When teams come up they normally have a good start because they did ever so well to win the league. Teams normally come up with a freshness and it's all new to them and the excitement is there."