Dan O’Reilly spent 2021 building up his personal consistency – now he wants Hamilton to follow suit as a team.
The Irish centre-back has been a big hit with fans since arriving in January from League of Ireland side Drogheda United.
A product of Premier League club Fulham’s academy, the 27-year-old has gone from part-time football back to full-time with ease since his move to South Lanarkshire.
There were opportunities to remain closer to home and go full-time, but O’Reilly was adamant that taking the plunge and going into UK territory was the right move for him.
A strong season at Drogheda allowed him to build a consistent run of impressive games, and if Accies want to finish higher than their sixth-placed Championship finish in season 2021/22, they also need to find a winning rhythm.
He explained: “A couple of years ago I was still fairly content with playing at part-time level. Obviously you are not training every day but last year in particular was really enjoyable.
“I built up a lot of consistency in my game and then I got the opportunity to come over here. I thought it was the right one for me and I still stand by that now.
“There were full-time options for me to stay in Ireland as well. But I feel that moving over here, it felt more full-time. If I’d taken an option in Ireland, I would still be living back home.
“I think I needed that push. The reverse of full-time to part-time is that you are training in the morning instead of night. I know teams who train four nights each week and that’s the same as the mornings.
“It’s the same as what we do. There was a bit of adaptation in terms of changing that around but I think if I was still at home, I would be comfortable.
“I think for this season, we need to build our consistency of winning games. If we take a draw, it’s a deserved draw and not one that we should have won.”
Scotland’s second tier has been a jump in standard according to the defender but it’s one he has relished, and thrived in.
Hamilton’s start to 2022 in the Championship provided the highs of winning 4-0 at Partick Thistle and contrasted with a sobering 4-0 loss to Inverness, highlighting the league’s competitiveness to O’Reilly.
He added: “I do think the standard is higher here. And we want to play higher at Hamilton and the goal for this season is to really push on. That was a big attraction to myself coming here.
“I think our form in the early part of 2022 was decent compared to last year. There were games we should have won when we drew.
"There’s games we have lost that going into them, we felt optimistic. It is a really competitive league.”
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