Canning Hails Accies' Belief

Photo by Jeff Holmes

Player-manager Martin Canning insists simple belief has underpinned Hamilton's three-game Premiership winning run.

Victories over Dundee United and Inverness were followed just before the international break by the ending of Hearts' five-game winning streak in the league, albeit that 3-2 win at New Douglas Park came in the wake of a 2-1 defeat by Raith Rovers in the Scottish League Cup.

Ahead of the "difficult" trip to St Johnstone on Saturday, Canning spoke about Accies' encouraging league form which sees them in fourth place with 10 points from five games, saying: "Belief is the big thing for the players.

"They believe in themselves, they believe in the group and you are seeing it on the pitch.

"I don't think there is any big secret in terms of what we are doing, things are pretty much similar to last season.

"We have brought in a couple of players who have made a difference and everyone has a great belief in the group and each other and you see it in the results."

Much of the attention in the aftermath of the win over the Jambos was on the red card awarded to Hearts' Callum Paterson for a challenge on the Accies midfielder Darian Mackinnon - since rescinded - and Gorgie head coach Robbie Neilson's post-match blast at referee Willie Collum.

Canning, however, is happy for his side to stay under the radar and remain in the top flight.

He said: "Myself and the players don't really need to get credit for it, we are happy to get the result and move on to the next game.

"If you get the column inches then great but if you don't it doesn't really matter, the result is the most important thing. We got the result which is the biggest thing.

"When you look at the size of the club, it is the smallest club with the smallest budget so logic would say we should go down.

"You can understand why people say it but we have done it time and time again and hopefully we can do it this season in terms of proving people wrong."