EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS REPORTS

Barnes leaves selection to last minute
BILL LOTHIAN ([email protected])
EDINBURGH ACCIES coach Ian Barnes has admitted his plans for the rest of the season are in tatters going into the home clash with Glasgow Hawks tomorrow.

Barnes is keeping his selection cards close to his chest, insisting it is impossible to say who might be available to face the Cup holders.

"I don't know who might be playing or who might be coming back into contention," he said.

After Accies' latest 12-20 defeat at Hawick he admitted: "I'd said we had to re-define realistic objectives as top four in the league and winning the Scottish Cup.

"To do that we had to win our next 17 successive games and we've fallen at the first hurdle. It shows you how much I know."

That fall has been prompted by a relative lack of hunger, according to Barnes - using the Hawick defeat as a yardstick.

"You can't take it away from Hawick. It's important to them. They wanted it more. They made all the right noises, we didn't give the right answers."

The message from the ex-Scotland second row is that the only way is up. "That was poor stuff in the second half (at Hawick)," he acknowledged, referring to a defeat which was Accies' ninth in 13 matches

This article was posted on 30-Nov-2007, 12:41 by Hugh Barrow.