Time to sack the board Alex?
Killie manager Dyer chucks out tactics after hoping for a draw
ROSS CALLACHAN had no qualms about stepping up to take Hamilton’s penalty as the goal lifted them up to 10th place.
Callachan missed his last spotkick at Tannadice a couple of weeks back and felt he had a debt to pay his team-mates. And he insisted there were no doubts it was going into the back of the net.
The midfielder’s shot had been judged by Willie Collum to have come off the hand of Brandon Haunstrup – with Callachan duly dispatching the spot-kick.
He said: “There was a wee bit of nerves. You are always kind of nervous taking a penalty because the focus is on you. But I was confident I would stick it away and thankfully I did.
“I wanted to take the penalty because I wanted to make up for missing the last one.
“I felt I let the boys down that day, understandably so. But I made sure I put it right this time and I’m glad I did so.
“I had it in my head where it was going, I hit it well and it went in.
“I said it after the game at Tannadice that everyone misses penalties. I was disappointed at the time but I didn’t take it to heart.
“I knew I would take the next one and hit it well and I’m glad I did.”
Accies have now taken four points from six after their draw with Aberdeen and their win over 10-man Kilmarnock.
For a team who looked in serious danger of being left behind by the rest of the pack just a few weeks ago it has been a substantial turnaround.
Boosted off the park by the three points the club were gifted followed St Mirren’s punishment from the SPFL over Covid breaches, there has also been an improvement on the park with Callachan keen to sustain it.
He said: “It’s a massive win, especially after getting the three points during the week for the St Mirren game, so it’s been a good week for us.
“But we can’t rest on our laurels and need to build from this. We’ve been training well and even the Dundee United game when we lost it was still a good performance.
“We had a good performance against Aberdeen and here we showed a resilience to win 1-0 because they were a threat with the big man up top and we did well to see it out.
“You get confidence from winning games and playing well and hopefully we can keep that up.
“It’s a massive game here next week against Hibs. We know what Hibs can do, they have a right good squad, so we’ll need to be right at it to get something out of the game but we’ll go into it with confidence after this win.
“I’m a Hearts fan, so I always enjoy playing Hibs!”
Callachan’s goal makes him joint top scorer along with Hakeen Odoffin. And he’s determined to keep adding to his tally as Hamilton look to fight for their place in the top flight.
He said: “I’m delighted if I can chip in with goals and help the team, that’s why the gaffer signed me. I want to score more, I want to keep chipping in with goals.”
Nathan Thomas made his league debut for the club at the weekend and gave Accies something different when he arrived.
There was a change in energy about the performance with Callachan appreciative of the impact the 26-year-old winger had on the game.
Callachan added: “We deserved it, we won our battles and when Nathan came on he changed the game for us.
“He gave us a different outlet. He cut it back to me and it was my shot which won the penalty, so it shows we have good players coming off the bench as well.
“We’ve started to train a lot better and we got together and said if we’re not going to win a game, we won’t get beat. We’ve worked on our defensive shape and that’s shown in the games.
“Everyone is buying into it. I’m pleased for the gaffer because he’s had a lot of stick.
“I’m delighted for the boys and the club and also the fans because they deserve it. It’s been a tough season, it’s good to give them something back.”