Canning eager to prove doubters wrong and keep Hamilton in top flight

Accies are preparing for their fourth campaign in the top flight after surviving yet another relegation battle last term.

But with the smallest budget of the 12 Ladbrokes Premiership sides, Canning knows his team will be the favourites to go down this season.

It's going to be the same again, we're going to be the team that everybody tips to go down,'' said the Hamilton manager, whose side kick-off their top-flight campaign away to Aberdeen on Sunday.

Those predictions don't annoy me because if you were to look logically at what we spend in comparison to others, how many fans we get turning up in comparison to others and the size of our club in comparison to others, then pretty much everybody would say we should be finishing bottom.

I don't think we're being picked on, I just think it's the logical way to look at it - we just need to make sure we go prove everybody wrong again.

We've done that the last three years and hopefully we can go do it again.''

But Canning admits this year's test is set to be harder than ever, with the likes of Aberdeen, Rangers, Hibernian, Hearts and Kilmarnock all having had busy summers buying up a raft of experienced internationalists.

The Accies boss said: I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a good challenge. I think the league is stronger again this year.

If you look at the quality of the signings across the league, it definitely feels like the standard of player has shot up.

You've got guys like Graham Dorrans, Steven Whittaker and Kyle Lafferty coming back up from down south to join Scottish clubs which is great.

That's the result of having Celtic, Rangers, Hearts and Hibs all back in the one league. These are the games the media wants to see and it's bringing in a bit more income.

It's an exciting league to be involved in this year - but it just makes it all the tougher for us.'

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