Manager Terry Butcher hopes Adam Rooney has not played his last game for Inverness as he secured victory at Hamilton in the final Clydesdale Bank Premier League game of the season.

Rooney took his tally for the campaign to 22 goals with his winner at New Douglas Park and will now head home to Dublin to ponder his future. Butcher is well aware the forward has interest from elsewhere but believes Rooney would benefit from extending his stay in the Highlands.

He said: "We are ever optimistic. He's the perfect match for us. There are a lot of scouts watching him but his value will increase dramatically should he stay with us. We want him, we love him at the club and he knows what he could do."

He added: "It's a big temptation for him to stay at the club and enhance his career, I feel. He will definitely get 20 goals next year, with the way we play and the way he suits our style.

"Even last week, when we played St Mirren, we tried to keep him on the bench and away from the scouts but we had to put him on and the lift he gave everybody was enormous.

"If he goes, it will be a really big miss for us. We would need to bring in another player to fill that role but they would be big shoes to fill if that was the case. But I'm not looking at that, I'm looking at getting him on board and making sure we give him what we can."

Accies revealed before the game that nine first team players and coach Stuart Taylor would be departing the club after today's game as preparations begin for life in the Irn-Bru First Division.

Taylor returned to the club in December after initially parting company with Accies, along with assistant Andy Millen, but declined to go into detail about his decision to leave this time.

He said: "I had a conversation with the chairman on Friday and we had laughs, we had smiles on our faces. Comments were put back and forward and it was a conversation I was quite comfortable with and I'm sure he was as well.

"My decision was made in December and he said to me that there was a contract there for me but I don't want to elaborate on the conversation we had together because it's personal. It's the right time for me to move on. Principals, morals, it's time for me to go."

Source: PA