“Never an easy place to go.”
It is possibly one of the most tired and overused clichés in football but one that was perfectly sums up Aberdeen’s trip to Hamilton this evening.
Hamilton are slumped at the foot of the Scottish Premiership but the Dons have found trips to New Douglas Park an often torturous affair.
Only once during Derek McInnes’ time in charge of the Dons has he guided his side to victory in Hamilton – and that rare 3-0 success was more than two years ago.
The Dons were beaten 1-0 by the Accies on their last outing in South Lanarkshire thanks to a controversial early penalty from Alex D’Acol that halted a seven game unbeaten sequence.
Despite their lowly position in Scotland’s top flight, Hamilton have tasted defeat only four times in 13 matches on their own turf this season, although too many of those games have been draws rather than wins for manager Martin Canning’s liking.
His Aberdeen counterpart McInnes is bracing himself for another tight encounter on New Douglas Park’s artificial surface tonight, knowing a win would take his men 12 points clear of third-place Rangers.
He said: “We’ve won every game against Hamilton at Pittodrie but Hamilton are a better home team and they pick up some decent results there.
“Games against them are always quick.
“They get after teams and the pitch can make the game even quicker and we’ve got to be ready for that.
“They try to impose themselves on you and they’re always a competitive team.
“We’ve not always been good enough to get the results and there have been a couple of games in particular where we’ve played poorly, considering our standards.
“Any game where we don’t play to our level, we are vulnerable to not getting a result.
“Last time out they got their goal early on.
“We were aggrieved at the decision at the time.
“It gave them something to hold onto but our own performance from then on wasn’t always convincing either.
“We can’t just blame the decision.
“It’s a reminder that we need to start right and the first goal is always important in any game, but maybe more so down there.”
The Dons will, however, head to Hamilton in excellent form having won 10 of their previous 11 matches.
Attacker Jayden Stockley, who missed Saturday’s 1-0 win against Ross County, is the only absentee.
McInnes added: “We were hoping to have him back training before this one but the intention now is for him to train later in the week and be ready for the weekend.
“With the surface at Hamilton and the nature of his injury with his shoulder, he’s just not quite where we want him to be yet.”