Martin Canning proud after Hamilton win at Dundee secures safety

Hamilton manager Martin Canning saluted his players after they secured their Premiership safety with this win over Dundee.

Canning's side secured victory thanks to Carlton Morris' eighth minute winner which moved them seven points above second-bottom Kilmarnock with two games left. It could have been a bit more relaxed for the Lanarkshire club had Eamonn Brophy's 47th minute strike counted, but it was ruled out for offside.

Canning said: “I'm so proud of the players.

“There have been times when it's been difficult but they've continued to believe in themselves and I've believed in them.

“I'm just delighted with the end result.

“At the start of the season, our aim was to stay in the league.

“We had a good start which I said to the players at the time was crucial to the end goal of staying up.

“At that stage, people start talking about top-six and, of course, it would be great if we could do that but our main objective was to make sure we stayed in the league.

“I thought the attitude and the application of the players was first-class again.

“It was something we've done throughout the season.

“We've had a poor result and performance the week before and then put in a strong performance to get the result the following week.”

But while Canning could celebrate, Dundee manager Paul Hartley pulled no punches with regard to his own side's performance less than a week after their derby win relegated Dundee United.

Hartley said: “We've no complaints about the result. It was just a flat performance.

“It's disappointing because it was a vital game for us.

“Possibly all the emotion from the other night came into it, but we just didn't perform compared to the levels which we set ourselves in Monday night's game.

“Obviously, it was a different atmosphere on Monday and the magnitude of the game was different also.

“However, it was still a very important game for us in terms of trying to finish the season on a high.

“It was a stop-start game, with a lot of free-kicks given against us and there was lot of time-wasting.

“We didn't start the game particularly well and didn't get into the flow of it to be honest.

“Our squad is very thin just now but in terms of today we didn't turn up.”