As Lewis Hamilton screeched home in Japan's F1 at the weekend, a lesser known Hamilton was making footballing history in Scotland. Hamilton Academical FC, formed from a school academy team in South Lanarkshire in 1874, beat mighty Celtic at Celtic Park 1-0, their first win against the top Scottish club for 76 years. The ACCIES, as they are fondly known, went top of the Scottish Premier League and Chairman Les Gray was overwhelmed by this feat, claiming that eight of the finishing team on Saturday came from their own Academy and four of them had been with the club since they were ten years old. As chairman of the club, Les is well aware of helping the club survive on small pay outs; after winning the play off game last season to gain promotion from the Championship, only £50,000 came their way, so the budget is tight. With a well organised defence conceding few goals, Ali Crawford scored the winner at Celtic, but nobody in the club is getting above their station. The business model is clear for all to see and contracts are modest.
In 1970 the troubled club resigned from the league and in 1994 sold their old ground, Douglas Park, to Sainsburys to enable debts to be paid off. They ground shared and then were relegated to division 3. In 2008 a revival allowed the club to be promoted to the SPL, they were relegated to the Championship again in 2011 but last season came second and won their play off after penalty kicks. Alex Neil, player manager thinks it is all academic as the Accies academy is clearly doing its job.
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