Team spirit key for boss

The Blues travel to take on Dungannon Swifts on Saturday with the chance to make it four straight league wins heading into the Boxing Day derby.

A big part of their upturn in form, Hamilton says, is the atmosphere in the dressing room.

And that positivity could come in handy again this weekend against a Dungannon side who have won just three of their opening 20 league games. Hamilton is looking to compound their misery on Saturday and hopes his side’s good attitude will lead them to victory.

“We want to go there and get three points,” he said.

“Dungannon and ourselves have the best goals against records in the bottom six teams and that shows that they’re defending well too.

“We go there full of confidence though. Hopefully the boys can put in another performance like they have been doing in recent weeks. We’ve been delighted with the displays they’ve put in.

“They’re playing for their team-mates as well. You can see that even in simple things like whenever there’s a goal scored, there are seven or eight players over celebrating together. That’s all down to the team spirit and the fact that the boys are all getting on together.

“That’s key at a club where you don’t have a big budget, you have to get a good team spirit which is worth so much to the team.”

Hamilton also said that spirit is helped by his policy of refusing to change a winning line-up, something that is likely to be continuing this weekend.

“The boys won quite convincingly against Ballymena and I can’t see the team changing,” he said.

“The only time a winning team has changed was when I came in to play against Distillery and that was because Ciaran Doherty had the flu.

“Unless somebody takes ill or has an injury then the team for Saturday’s game will be the same. I think the boys appreciate that because as a player, when you win you want to keep your place.”