Hamilton Academical
Also written as Hamilton.
The club
Hamilton Academical were founded in 1874 out of the school team of Hamilton Academy, and are the only professional club in British football to have originated that way. They play in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, at New Douglas Park, which opened in 2001 and holds 6,018. The old Douglas Park, a few hundred yards away, was home from 1888 until 1994. The club are known as the Accies and play in red and white hoops, with a plain red change strip.
Recent seasons
The last six years have been the most turbulent in the club's modern history. Hamilton finished bottom of the Premiership in 2020/21 and went down, ending a six-season run in the top flight. They were sixth in the Championship in 2021/22 and relegated from it in 2022/23. Promotion came straight back at the first attempt: in the 2023/24 League One play-off final they beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2-1 at home and 3-2 at the Caledonian Stadium, 5-3 on aggregate.
The Championship season that followed was undone off the pitch. On 17 April 2025 the SPFL deducted Hamilton 15 points and fined them £9,000 for multiple breaches of league rules, dropping them from seventh to bottom; the appeal was rejected on 1 May 2025 and relegation to League One was confirmed. The deductions then kept coming through 2025/26: five points in October 2025 for making payments to players registered as amateurs, nine in December 2025 for failing to hold a bronze-level club licence, and six in February 2026 for late payment of staff and players. On the pitch Hamilton were one of the division's better sides, 16 wins, 7 draws and 13 defeats from 36 games with 54 goals scored, but 34 points after deductions left them ninth of ten. They saved themselves in the relegation play-offs, beating Forfar Athletic 5-2 on aggregate (3-1 away, 2-1 at home) and then Clyde 5-4, drawing 1-1 away before a 4-3 win at home in the second leg on 15 May 2026.
The club also lost its home for the season. An ownership dispute forced Hamilton out of New Douglas Park and into a ground-share with Cumbernauld Colts at Broadwood Stadium for 2025/26. They were back playing at New Douglas Park by July 2026.
Off the field, chief executive Seref Zengin and director Gerry Strain were ruled not fit and proper in November 2025, Police Scotland opened a fraud investigation, and on 4 January 2026 Morley Sports Management Group completed a takeover, buying a 97.5 per cent stake from Zengin.
Honours and landmarks
Hamilton have never won a major national trophy. They have won the Scottish Challenge Cup three times, in 1991/92, 1992/93 and 2022/23. League titles are the First Division in 1985/86, 1987/88 and 2007/08, the Second Division in 1903/04 and the Third Division in 2000/01. They were Scottish Cup runners-up in 1910/11 and 1934/35. Record attendance is 28,690 against Heart of Midlothian at Douglas Park on 3 March 1937, a league match postponed from 27 February and replayed on a Wednesday afternoon, which Hamilton won 2-1. David Wilson scored 246 goals for the club between 1928 and 1939; Rikki Ferguson made 452 league appearances between 1974 and 1988. The record fee received is £1.2m for James McCarthy to Wigan Athletic in July 2009, the same month the club paid its record fee, £180,000 to Sigma Olomouc for goalkeeper Tomas Cerny. In October 2017 Hamilton lost around £1m from their Royal Bank of Scotland account to a telephone phishing fraud.
Notable scorelines
Record win: 10-2, recorded twice, against Cowdenbeath in October 1932 and against Greenock Morton in the Championship on 3 May 2014. Record defeat: 1-11 against Hibernian in Division One on 6 November 1965.
Head-to-head notes
Hamilton do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and no published all-time record was found for any of their 2026/27 League One opponents: Airdrieonians, Alloa Athletic, Cove Rangers, East Fife, East Kilbride, Montrose, Peterhead, Queen of the South and Ross County. Alloa, Cove Rangers, East Fife, Montrose, Peterhead and Queen of the South were all in League One with Hamilton last season. Airdrieonians and Ross County have come down from the Championship, where Hamilton last played them in 2024/25. East Kilbride, promoted from League Two, are the newcomers, and the two clubs are barely six miles apart. Hamilton beat Peterhead 1-0 at Balmoor in the League Cup on 11 July 2026 and Elgin City 5-0 at New Douglas Park on 25 July 2026.
Right now (2026/27)
Darian MacKinnon, a former Hamilton midfielder, took over from John Rankin on 29 November 2025 and was made permanent first-team manager on 3 February 2026 on a deal to the end of 2028/29. Adam Hopes joined his coaching staff at the end of July 2026.
The squad was rebuilt almost wholesale over the summer, entirely on free transfers and undisclosed fees. Striker Andy Ryan returned from Larne, and there was a heavy raid on Greenock Morton: midfielder Cameron Blues, right-back Aaron Comrie and centre-back Fergus Owens. Winger Dom Thomas came from Airdrieonians, midfielder Stuart Bannigan from Ayr United, forward Kalvin Orsi from Alloa Athletic, forward Taylor Sutherland from Montrose, goalkeeper Dean Lyness as a free agent, and defenders Gregor Crookston and Kai Smutek from the Hearts B side. Goalkeeper Neil Stafford joined on loan from Forfar Athletic until 31 May 2027. Out went striker Kevin O'Hara to Larne, Oli Shaw to Dunfermline Athletic, and midfielder Barry Maguire, whose contract expired on 27 July 2026.
In Premier Sports Cup Group H, Hamilton won 1-0 at Peterhead on 11 July, drew 1-1 at home with Raith Rovers on 18 July and won the shootout 5-4, lost 1-0 at Kilmarnock on 21 July and beat Elgin City 5-0 at home on 25 July. Eight points was not enough to progress; Kilmarnock won the group. The League One season starts away to Montrose at Links Park on Saturday 1 August 2026 at 3pm.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Academical_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Hamilton_Academical_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_League_One https://hamiltonacciesfc.co.uk/ https://hamiltonacciesfc.co.uk/premier-sports-cup-opponents-confirmed/ https://the-accies.com/darian-mackinnon-appointed-first-team-manager/ https://www.stevesfootballstats.uk/hamilton_academical_club_record.html https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/hamilton-academical-fc/transfers/verein/2999/saison_id/2026 https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/team-that-beat-caley-thistle-in-play-off-final-last-season-d-379844/ https://readtheleague.com/the-big-feature/gone-grounds-douglas-park-part-one https://footballtripper.com/scotland/hamilton-accies-stadium/ https://www.raithrovers.net/premier-sports-cup-group-stage-fixtures/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.