Jake Taylor, by his own admission, has yet to show his best in claret and amber since his loan move from Reading to Motherwell.
He insists though that he is ready to show the Motherwell fans the real Jake Taylor, and what better place for him to start than the Lanarkshire derby today?
“I hope the fans are about to see the best of me,” he said.
“I played a few games but I got suspended and it was frustrating to miss a few games. But I played at the weekend and we got a vital point. It gives us confidence going into the game on Saturday.
“It’s been great so far though. It’s very high tempo, with lots of tackling. Lots of running around.
“The Championship is really similar. It’s 100 miles per hour, it’s all hustle and bustle. You don’t really expect it to be like that up here. But I’m adapting and the more I play the more I get used to it. You realise what it’s all about.”
Taylor’s only other experience of a derby came in the Dover version, playing for Exeter against Torquay. He is aware though that today’s game may be an altogether less prosaic affair than that encounter.
“That was my only previous derby experience but it was fairly relaxed,” he said.
“It wasn’t like the more traditional derbies but it was still a derby and it was nice to get one over on your rival. We beat Torquay 2-1.
“But I know what the Hamilton game means to everyone here and it’s going to be a big game.
“In a derby you try and blank our the atmosphere and it’s only when you score you maybe realise what it’s like. I don’t take too much notice of it but it’s nice to have a twelfth man.
“The Motherwell fans have certainly been great since I’ve come up here.”
In the Hamilton camp, Dougie Imrie insists that the fact today’s game is against their local rivals has had little bearing on their preparation, with their sole focus being on getting their season back on track after consecutive losses to St Johnstone and Aberdeen.
“You want to win every derby and get the bragging rights but we prepare for them the same as we would do a normal game,” he said.
“There’s no difference – it’s just a derby atmosphere.
“The St Johnstone game was a bad day at the office. We didn’t play that badly but mistakes cost us and we let them get their goals far too easily and it cost us.
“The performance at Aberdeen was night and day compared to Saturday.
“We were disappointed to lose the game. I wasn’t too downhearted about the performance because I thought we were excellent.
“If we carry that into the Motherwell game we’ll be fine.
“Local derbies are always great fun to play in and both sets of fans and players will be up for it.
“I don’t think Motherwell won at our place last year. The last two games haven’t been good for us, but we can put it right on Saturday.”
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