Hamilton Boss Martin Canning Proud Despite Defeat To Aberdeen

Hamilton boss Martin Canning was full of praise for his side's reaction as they bounced back from a heavy 4-1 defeat at St Johnstone to come close to taking something from league leaders Aberdeen.

Only Adam Rooney's penalty separated the sides at the end of the 90 minutes, but Canning felt his side could have had a penalty of their own for an incident just moments after the deadlock was broken, which saw Dougie Imrie go into the book for simulation.

Canning said I thought the momentum towards the end was on our side, and if either team was going to score it was going to be us. I'm disappointed for the boys because they put so much into it and probably deserved to take something.

The huge positive for me is the way we bounced back after Saturday. I obviously wasn't too chuffed and the reaction tonight was spot on.''

Of the two penalty incidents, he added: I've not seen either back, but some of the boys have seen a replay and think there was contact. I thought Aberdeen's penalty was, there was no contact with the ball.''

He continued: If the performance is right, results will follow and for me today the performance was excellent. Michael McGovern made a really good save from Rooney, but when you come away to the team who are top of the league, your goalkeeper will have one or two saves to make''.

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes was pleased just to get the points after what proved to be a nervy ending to the game, made all the tougher by Ash Taylor being forced off with a late injury.

It was needs must, all hands to the pump,'' he said.I always look to keep a substitute back for just that eventuality, and I had actually thought of putting all three on at one point as it was clear we needed a dose of energy and freshness. We held one back before we put Peter Pawlett on with 10 minutes to go, and Sod's Law, Ash goes down.

We dug in and got the job done. There's not a successful team out there that hasn't had to win a game like that. The performance wasn't what we'd hoped for, but the outcome is what we wanted.

The positives are that Rooney has scored again, we've got another clean sheet. We've got seven wins from seven and move five points clear. We're delighted with that.''