Jack Baird believes Adam Hammill could make the difference in St Mirren's fight for survival – but fears he will not be around long enough to see the Buddies safe.
The former Liverpool, Dumfermline and Barnsley wideman provided the spark with two goals – including a sensational 40-yard wonder strike – as Saints picked up their first win under Oran Kearney last week against Hearts.
The Paisley outfit had gone nine games without a win since the Northern Irishman replaced Alan Stubbs but can now climb out of the bottom two by beating Hamilton at the Simple Digital Arena on Saturday.
Baird expects his side will need another sprinkling of magic for Hammill – whose short-term deal expires in the middle of January – to see off Accies,
But he is also worried that if the 30-year-old keeps up his impressive displays he might find himself with plenty of offers to return south to England.
The defender said: "Adam scoring twice was massive for us and him and I think he'll really kick on now.
"He's can be a match-winner for us. I've been lucky to play with a lot of guys like that at this club and when you've got a guy like that he can get you a result out of nothing.
"It was quite an even game against Hearts until he did what he did. Just as Hearts were creeping back into it he went and scored again. That was brilliant for us.
"He's playing at a very high level so everybody knows we're going to be counting on him for a lot of goals.
"I like him as a guy and as a player so I'd love to keep him in the team.
"But when you score goals like he did at the weekend you're going to attract attention from other places. I wouldn't be surprised to see other teams come in for him.
"I'd love to keep him but it's not up to me."
Kearney got off to an impressive start back in September as his team grabbed a deserved point from Celtic against the odds.
But they failed to maintain those levels of concentration and were thumped 3-0 by Martin Canning's Accies at the Hope Stadium the following week – a result which sent Saints into a tailspin of seven straight defeats.
However, they are on the road to recovery having taken four points from the last six and Baird is now looking to exact some revenge against Hamilton.
"Hamilton are a good team and their stadium is a hard place to go but thankfully we're at home this weekend," he said. "It would be nice to put things right after what happened last time.
"That was one of the sorest results we've had this season as we'd just come off a great result the week before having drawn with Celtic.
"We came off that game thinking if we can repeat that kind of performance against Accies then we'd be alright but we just didn't turn up on the day."
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