Canning calls for cutting edge from Hamilton

Hamilton boss Martin Canning told his team they must start capitalising on their chances after a 1-1 draw with St Johnstone in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Greg Docherty scored a brilliant goal to open his account for the season during Sunday's match at the SuperSeal Stadium, but the young midfielder passed up a glorious chance to make it 2-0 midway through the second half.

The visitors from Perth made Hamilton pay for that and grabbed an equaliser with eight minutes left when Blair Alston's shot was parried by Remi Matthews and Liam Craig smashed the rebound into the net.

Canning said: For us it's another one that got away. We were ahead in the game at half-time.

I thought we were pinned in a wee bit in the second half, St Johnstone had a lot of corners and free-kicks. I thought we defended our box well, and we created the second chance where Greg Docherty has got to score and make it 2-0.

It seems to be a recurring theme just now that we're creating numerous opportunities and not taking them. It was the same against Kilmarnock here, Dundee away was the exact same thing, and it happened again here today.

Don't get me wrong, it was a lot tighter, there wasn't a lot in the game, it was stuffy, and we had to battle. It was the type of game you had to compete in. I thought we did that well, but when you get the opportunity to go 2-0 up and put the game to bed you've got to take it.

We ended up conceding, it's another point from three, if you like, and too many times we seem to be letting three points slip away.''

Hamilton could find that becomes increasingly costly further down the line this season.

St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright was pleased to take a point, but felt his side should not have been behind in the first place.

I thought we settled into the game and probably didn't deserve to be 1-0 down. I haven't seen it yet, but I didn't think that was a free-kick (leading up to the goal).

If that's a foul we'll be blowing up every 30 seconds, and if you look at fouls, Massimo Donati wrestles Joe Shaughnessy to the ground thee or four times at corners.

Anyway, we found ourselves 1-0 down, and we just said 'keep going' because we were creating opportunities. I know Zander Clark has had to make the save when they countered us, but I thought we dominated in the second half, fully deserved the point, and with better decision-making maybe we could have got that second goal and won the game.

I'm happy to come here and get a point, particularly with us being 1-0 down. It's always difficult to come back from that because they're a good side, so I'm pleased. We showed character.''