Amy McCafferty said she believes Accies are definitely “one of the teams to beat” this year as she begins preparing for her second year at New Douglas Park.
McCafferty re-signed with the club for 2016 after enjoying the challenge of Scotland’s top flight last season joining Gary Doctor’s squad from Mill United, and the 20-year-old thinks last year’s difficult spells have prepared them for the new SWPL2.
She said: “Last season it was basically a new, young team playing against experienced teams, and this year it’s obviously still going to be good teams but I think we’re going to be one of the teams to beat.”
The midfielder said the move to NDP was the best decision she ever made, despite the hard work it entailed.
“Moving here from Mill United last season was the best decision I’ve ever made, training wise and everything it’s just a step up from the second division that I played in before, and it’s a challenge which obviously helps you improve,” she began.
“Technically it was a massive jump. Obviously a lot of the players in the Premier Division are very switched on, technically they play very well and are strong, some of them are older so it was a massive difference from what I’d known.”
After suffering injury early on in the season, she then missed games due to holidays before getting into the swing of it.
Hamilton had a tough first half of the season in 2015 against the country’s top sides, but when McCafferty returned after the break, she saw massive improvements, that she believes will stand them in good stead this year.
“When I came back I noticed the difference in the team and the step up in the second half of the season. I thought we were playing so much better as a team, I think we’d just gotten used to each other and stuff.
“That’ll be brilliant for going into next season – we’ve gotten more used to each other and working as team more.”
And, like her teammates, she has promotion on her mind.
“Targets for next season would be to obviously not go on as many holidays, keep injury free, play more games, improve, help the team and I think if we work hard and play the way we played in the last few games of the season we could definitely go up,” she added.
Reported by Colette Carr
Picture: Hamilton Academical
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