Former Caley Thistle assistant manager Brian Rice believes he is the man to keep Hamilton Accies in the Scottish Premiership.
Rice has taken his first managerial role at the Hope CBD Stadium, replacing Martin Canning who was dismissed earlier this week.
After spending his entire coaching career as an assistant manager, working at Falkirk, Hibernian, Inverness and St Mirren, as well a spell coaching in Qatar, Rice felt it was time to become a manager in his own right.
He takes over with Accies sitting 10th in the top flight and is determined to extend their stay in the Premiership into a sixth season.
Rice said: “It’s only in the last two or three years that I’ve decided I want to be a man in charge of my own destiny. I know the people here well, I’ve known them for a long time. There’s not many jobs come up in the Premiership that’ll be your first job and it appealed to me.
“I’m very confident. All the work will be done on the training field. That’s where I do my work. I love coaching. I’ve been a coach now for 27, 28 years. If I can get it right on the training field, I’m sure we’ll be OK on a Saturday.”
Rice worked alongside John Hughes at Falkirk, where the duo took them into Europe for the first time, and Hibernian, before the former Nottingham Forest midfielder embarked on a stint with Al-Khor in Qatar.
He returned to Scottish football in 2015, replacing Russell Latapy as Hughes’ assistant at Caley Thistle and was a popular coach within the dressing room. Rice remained in post with Hughes’ successor Richie Foran and, alongside Scott Kellacher, held the fort at the Caledonian Stadium prior to John Robertson’s appointment in June 2017.
Inverness won the IRN-BRU Cup last year with Rice working alongside Robertson, before he left to work with Alan Stubbs at St Mirren last summer. He continued alongside Stubbs’ replacement Oran Kearney, prior to take the Accies job.
