Hastie no stranger at Hamilton, says boss
Boss John Rankin says new signing Jake Hastie is no stranger in the Hamilton Accies dressing room and is settling in quickly after the winger linked up with several of his mates at New Douglas Park.
The former Rangers and Motherwell man signed on loan from Hartlepool United last week on a six-month loan deal, which Accies hope to make permanent when his contract expires in June.
When he strolled into New Douglas Park, Hastie was greeted by plenty of familiar faces with the likes of ex-rangers team-mates Jamie Barjonas and Ben Williamson in there alongside ex-motherwell man Kyle Macdonald and former Hartlepool ace
Reghantumilty.
And Rankin says that has helped Hastie“catch the eye in training”and hit the ground running.
Rankin said:“we are delighted to get Jake on board.
“I thought it would be beneficial for the group for him to come in and he’s worked hard and trained really well.
“He has caught the eye in training and it obviously helps when he knows a lot of players in the squad.
“He knows Barjo and Ben Williamson from his time at Rangers, Reghan Tumilty from his time at Hartlepool, Kevin O’hara from his time at Alloa and Kyle Macdonald from when he was at Motherwell.
“So he is not a stranger in the dressing room by any means.
“A lot of boys know him but the most important thing is that he has to suit our environment and he does. The personality he has certainly helps in the dressing room and he is certainly the type of player we want in there.
“He was on our radar for a while. We knew he had come back into the Hartlepool team against Ebbsfleet recently and we didn’t know if he was going to still be an option.
“But he became available and his pace and directness is something we’ve lacked recently, so we are looking forward to him featuring because he certainly adds a different dimension with his raw pace.”
Hastie had been in line to make his debut in Saturday’s clash with Stirling Albion, which had been rearranged from earlier in the month, but that fell victim to the weather again.
Although disappointed, Rankin praised the Binos for their communication through the week, which allowed Accies to arranged an alternative to keep them ticking over for this Saturday’s visit from Montrose.
He said:“although the pitch has been unplayable twice now, we need to give Stirling credit because their communication in the early part of the week to let us know the game was in doubt was helpful.
“We were able to put an alternative plan in place in case the game did get put off, which we ended up using, so we are grateful to them for that.
“Montrose were looking to play Stirling on Tuesday and that game was postponed as well, so it will be two teams in similar situations.
“We are looking forward to it.”