Hammill eyes Town deal after escaping prison sentence

SIMON GRAYSON has revealed that Huddersfield Town loan winger Adam Hammill has told him that his recent court case ordeal has affected his form.

The Town chief had a chat with Hammill – who avoided jail on Wednesday after admitting a drunken assault on two paramedics during a night out in his native Liverpool on October 7 – yesterday morning.

The 24-year-old was given a suspended 12-week prison sentence, 150 hours of community service and a fine by judges at Liverpool Magistrates Court, with Grayson hoping Hammill will now be able to put things fully behind him after being spared jail.

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Hammill joined Town on loan from Championship rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers at the end of August, with his deal scheduled to end on January 13.

After making a telling impact on his full debut against Derby County on September 15, Hammill’s form has been somewhat patchy, starting four matches in total and coming off the bench in four others, scoring one goal.

The former Barnsley player effectively now has 10 league games in which to earn a longer term contract at the John Smith’s Stadium, while paying back the faith in him shown by Town, who opted to allow his loan to continue, despite news of his assault charge.

Grayson said: “I had a chat with Adam (on Thursday) and he was the first to admit he does feel it has affected him.

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“Things have been going around in his head, which is only natural. He has been very open and honest about the situation.

“He trained on Thursday morning and it was as if we had got a new player, so we are looking to see a lot of the good things we saw when we first signed him.

“He has only got until January to try and secure a permanent move, if that is to be the case. I think for his own development he needs to be going somewhere where he needs to be playing regularly to do well.

“Adam had a mixed loan spell at Middlesbrough last year and it was an opportunity for him here. He started well and then has not done so well.

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“Hopefully, his head has now been cleared and he will move onto better things.”

Meanwhile, Grayson has praised defender Calum Woods, who signed a one-year contract extension with the club earlier this week.

And the Town boss fully expects the Scouse full-back, now contracted at the club until the summer of 2014, to seriously push regular full-backs Jack Hunt and Paul Dixon in the coming months.

He said: “Calum has done very well.

“He is a versatile player who is young and hungry and does his job in the right manner and he is a really good footballer.

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“He plays right-back and left-back and can push into midfield as well and when he has come into the team, he has never let us down and he will be pushing the two full-backs when he is out of the team.”

Grayson has revealed that he has rebuffed interest from three or four clubs to take young defender Murray Wallace on loan.

He added: “It shows what other clubs think of Murray and also what we think about him and how well he is progressing.”