Hamilton Accies will learn lessons from Coleraine chaos, says boss John Rankin

Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin admits lessons have been learned from their Coleraine travel chaos that threatened to put last week’s SPFL Trust Trophy tie in jeopardy, and resulted in some fans missing the start of their title defence.

A flight delay at Edinburgh Airport on Saturday morning led to the third round tie in Northern Ireland being put back 45 minutes, as the Accies team and some of their supporters made a mad dash across the Irish Sea for the game at the Showgrounds.

The uncertainty surrounding the kick-off time led to some fans cancelling their trip altogether, while others who did make it across had to leave the game early to catch ferries booked on the understanding the game would finish around 4.45pm as scheduled.

Accies were criticised for travelling on the morning of the match, rather than the day before.

And Rankin, whose side won the clash 3-1 in front of 295 Accies fans, says the club won’t make the same mistake again.

He told Lanarkshire Live Sport: “The fans are hugely important for football. There is no football without fans, so I’m disappointed some of them couldn’t see the last wee bit of the game.

“I’m not sure how many people it affected but it was obvious the game got quieter as it went on.

“Their backing of us was incredible, considering they went that distance on the day to watch the boys play. It is definitely appreciated on our part.

“This is one of those situations where we look back at what we could have done better, and obviously we could have travelled the day before.

“The decision was made that we would leave on the day of the game pretty soon after the draw was made [in August].

“It was then a case of me arranging our plans around the travel plans.

“The decision was made and