Instead, Oakley made his Accies debut as the new era began with a 1-1 Ladbrokes Premiership draw against Dundee on Saturday.

"I thought George started really well," Rice said.

"He played the full 90 minutes at Somerset on Tuesday night against Ayr United. I was watching him there, he played really well, and that sort of made my mind up about him, because we were talking about him at St Mirren, I never had the job here at the time.

"George will only get better. He will get fitter, he will get stronger, he will get better. He has loads to learn, he is a work in progress. He will get better if he wants to get better."

Accies host St Johnstone on Wednesday boosted by Darian MacKinnon's late equaliser on Saturday and a positive response from fans to their performance.

"That's pivotal," Rice said. "I said to them before the game, their performance reflects themselves, this town, these fans – make them proud of you. Win, lose or draw, make them proud of you."

Rice will be without Scott McMann against Saints after the full-back suffered a weekend injury.

"Scott McMann has broken two bones in his hand, so he will be out for a few weeks," Rice said. "But we have boys coming back off the treatment table so we will be ready to go."

Meanwhile, Gary Woods hopes Saturday marks a fresh start for the team and himself after the goalkeeper returned to the starting line-up following injury.

Woods said: "This season has not been great for me injury-wise. I had a long-term elbow injury which needed sorted but it couldn't be.

"It was an ongoing problem but we have got to the bottom of it now and I feel fit. I want to go out and play every game no matter how I'm feeling but ultimately sometimes that's not the best thing to do. But it's finished now.

"When you are in a team that's not being doing that well, sometimes the goalkeeper gets the blame. But the new manager has come in, he gave me the shirt at the weekend and I'm hoping to keep it."

Woods feels Hamilton have under-performed this season.

"We looked more attacking at the weekend," he added.

"We registered 14 shots on goal which hasn't happened for a long time. There were definitely positive signs that we can look up the table.

"For me, survival shouldn't be an achievement. With the players we have, we should be higher than we are, and as a club you should be trying to improve on what you did the season before.

"I think we are good enough to aim higher than we are but, with the points gap being as it is, we have put ourselves in the situation where survival is the ambition at the minute."

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