Hamilton Academical F.C.

After a hard-fought campaign during the 2013–14 Scottish Championship season, Accies finished in second position on the final day of the season following a 10–2 home victory over Morton. Despite the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion to Dundee, they went on to defeat Falkirk 2–1 on aggregate in the first stage of their Premiership play-off to face top-flight Hibernian over two legs for a place in the 2014–15 Scottish Premiership. Hamilton lost the first leg 2–0 at New Douglas Park, but two away goals in the return leg at Easter Road, including an injury time strike, forced the tie to extra time and penalty-kicks. Hamilton converted all of their spot-kicks and gained promotion back to the top flight.[8] Manager Alex Neil left the club in January 2015, to take up a position at English club Norwich.[9][10]

Hamilton found themselves in another playoff at the end of 2016–17, this time as the Premiership incumbents. A close tie against Championship representatives Dundee United ended in a 1–0 aggregate victory, with Accies youth graduate Greg Docherty scoring the only goal.[11]

In October 2017, an elaborate voice phishing fraud was perpetrated on Hamilton Academical.[12][13] Posing as a fraud investigator for the club's bank (Royal Bank of Scotland), the culprit convinced the club's account handler that funds were at risk from corruption within the company and should be moved temporarily, providing instructions to evade suspicion in the bank's genuine checks when monies began to be transferred.[14] The account handler also spoke to an accomplice via a telephone number provided by the main culprit to 'confirm' the legitimacy of the instructions.[14] With the employee sufficiently deceived, a total of close to £1 million was transferred out of the club's accounts over several transactions, with the fraud being discovered the following day.[13] The incident involved most of the club's working funds, causing the abandonment of a project to improve the youth academy.[12]

In February 2018, having only been able to recover a small percentage of their funds, Hamilton publicly declared that they were preparing to take legal action against the bank for a portion of the loss, believing the bank's security measures to have been inadequate in detecting the fraud (due to the unusual pattern of the transactions and the large sums involved);[13][15] RBS refuted this but stated they were working with the club and the police to identify those responsible.[13][15] The Accies chief executive Colin McGowan later described RBS as "morally bankrupt" after he was informed during discussions to prevent future losses that the bank's system did not allow customers to set daily transfer limits.[16]

After spending seven years in the Scottish Premiership, Hamilton were eventually relegated, finishing 12th in the Scottish Premiership in the 2020–21 season, meaning the club returned to the Scottish Championship.[17]

Following their return to the Scottish Championship, Hamilton continued to struggle on the pitch and once again found themselves battling relegation. However, they managed to avoid back-to-back relegations with two games to spare after a 1–0 win away to Greenock Morton ensured safety. Accies eventually finished 6th on their return to the Scottish Championship.[18]

The 2022–23 season was once again a difficult one for Hamilton, as they again found themselves in a relegation battle. They managed to avoid automatic relegation, entering the relegation play-offs, however they eventually lost in the final on penalties to Airdrieonians which confirmed relegation to Scottish League One. This meant that Hamilton had been relegated twice in the space of three seasons, falling from the Scottish Premiership in 2021 to League One by 2023.[19][20]

• Record victory: 10–2 vs. Cowdenbeath (October 1932)[24] and 10–2 vs. Morton (May 2014)[25][26]

• Biggest transfer purchase: Tomas Cerny from Sigma Olomouc (July 2009; £180,000)[27]
• Biggest transfer sale: James McCarthy to Wigan Athletic (July 2009; £1,200,000)[27]

As of 23 September 2023[28]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SCO Ryan Fulton (vice-captain) 2 DF  IRL Josh O'Brien 3 DF  SCO Jackson Longridge 4 DF  SCO Lee Kilday 5 DF  SCO Jamie Hamilton 6 MF  SCO Jamie Barjonas 7 FW  SCO Euan Henderson 8 MF  SCO Scott Martin (captain) 9 FW  SCO Kevin O'Hara 10 FW  CAN Dario Zanatta 11 MF  SCO Lewis Smith 14 MF  SCO Marley Redfern 15 MF  SCO Connor Murray 16 DF  SCO Kyle MacDonald

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 FW  SWE Joel Mumbongo 18 DF  AUS Dylan McGowan 19 FW  SCO Andrew Winter 20 FW  SCO Joe McGlynn 21 MF  SCO Dylan Tait (on loan from Hibernian) 22 DF  SCO Reghan Tumilty 23 DF  SCO Chris McGinn 24 MF  SCO Michael Hewitt 26 DF  SCO Cian Newbury 27 FW  SCO Liam Morgan 31 GK  SCO Jamie Smith 33 DF  SCO Stephen Hendrie 51 GK  SCO Josh Lane

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 DF  SCO Fergus Owens (on loan at Kelty Hearts)

The following is a list of the officially appointed captains of the Hamilton Academical first-team.

Name	Nation	Years	Notes	Ref
Alex Neil	Scotland	2005–2014	Finished captaincy to become player-manager	[33]
Martin Canning	Scotland	2014–2015	Finished captaincy to become player-manager	[34]
Michael McGovern	Northern Ireland	2015–2016	Signed for Norwich City	[35]
Michael Devlin	Scotland	2016–2018	Signed for Aberdeen	[35]
Dougie Imrie	Scotland	2018–2019	Retired in 2019	[36]
Darian MacKinnon	Scotland	2019–2020	Contract expired	[37]
Brian Easton	Scotland	2020–2023	Contract expired	[38]
Scott Martin	Scotland	2023–		[39]