The news that star midfielder Ali Crawford is struggling with a groin injury ahead of Saturday’s match with Partick Thistle at Firhill will likely have Hamilton supporters in a sweat, but left-back Antons Kurakins insists that Martin Canning’s squad have players more than capable of stepping into the breach.
Whilst conceding that it would be a blow to Hamilton to go into the game without Crawford’s creativity and goal-threat, Kurakins believes that their battling draw with Dundee last week, where Crawford hobbled off at half-time, shows the strength in depth that the New Douglas Park squad now boasts.
He said: “We should be happy to get a point with just 10 men, but after the match the feeling was that we should still have won.
“It was a strange feeling. Overall we deserved to win, but with 10 men we deserved at least a draw.
“We had a couple of goals chopped off, Darian MacKinnon was sent off and we lost Ali Crawford to injury, but still we believed in ourselves and kept going.
“We have a good squad and have good players who can come from the bench and make an impact. “We can’t think that much about losing Ali. If we lose one player then we still have to keep going.
“We have to show we’re not a one-man team and we have enough players who can play in his position.
“Gramoz (Kurtaj) can play in this role. He says that this attacking midfielder position is the one he has been used to all his career but he is doing really well for us now on the left.
“I think that if Ali doesn’t play for a few games, Gramoz can show what he can do in this position.”
Former Celtic youth player Kurakins has thrived since returning to Scotland with Hamilton, so much so that he was included in Latvia’s squad for their recent Euro 2016 qualifier.
Whilst the Latvians didn’t qualify, he believes that having Michael McGovern at the finals in France is an inspiration to the squad, and demonstrates the quality they have in their ranks.
“Michael is a good example for everyone,” he said.
“I want to congratulate him because it’s a big thing for him and the country. In the summer we will all have someone to watch in the Euros!
“He doesn’t talk about it much – which is a surprise for me. On the day he came back we all praised him and gifted him a shirt and now he doesn’t say too much about it.
“There is no-one getting carried away. Everyone knows his job and that he has to keep working hard.”
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