DefiantDev: We’re not at rockbottom
MICHAEL Devlin insists nobody at Hamilton is downhearted despite the club dropping to the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership at the weekend.
The centre-half is adamant Martin Canning’s side can take positives from how they played in the 2-0 defeat to top-flight leaders Celtic at Parkhead on Saturday.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle jumped above the Lanarkshire club in the league with their 2-1 victory over struggling Rangers in the Highlands on Friday evening.
Asked if Inverness leapfrogging them was a psychological blow, Devlin replied: “To be honest, not really. It’s probably too early to be looking at the league table.
“Obviously, nobody wants to be bottom of the league at any stage of the season. However, there’s plenty of football and games for us to put that right.
“We need to start picking up points quickly. It doesn’t matter who it’s against, regardless of whether it’s Parkhead, Ibrox, Pittodrie.
“We don’t want to be bottom right now, but I’ll be concerned with the league table come the end of the season.”
Devlin felt that Hamilton played well against Scottish champions Celtic at Parkhead up until Moussa Dembele scored just before half-time.
“Unfortunately, that’s what can happen when you’re playing against the best team in the league with the best players,” he said. “They’re always capable of that moment of brilliance.
“I remember with five minutes of the first-half left trying to gee up the boys trying to go in at half- time 0-0. It had gone perfectly up till that point then, with one minute to go, Dembele put it in the top corner. It’s difficult to get your head around it at times and frustrating in the dressing room.
“But at the end of the day you just have to try to bounce back from that. We lost a second goal quite early in the second half which was disappointing, but there are positives from the performance.”
Devlin continued: “We’d worked on that all week and how we would try to stop Celtic and try to limit them.
“They’re playing very well at the moment and scoring at will so we knew we had to limit them then take care of the ball when we got it. At times we did do that, other times we were slack on the ball.
“Defensively, I felt we did okay as team. We worked hard, we stuck to our shape and gameplan and for the best part of the game that limited them to few opportunities.
“But it was always going to be difficult when there are players capable of scoring such great goals as Dembele does. He’s a handful. He’s got everything you don’t want to play against as a centre-back.
“He’s tall, he’s strong, he’s good in the air, he’s aggressive, he’s quick, technically he’s good. It was a magnificent turn and finish for the goal.
“I’ve watched him play against better centre-backs than myself and cause them real problems. He’s a handful. Then when you start to get tired Leigh Griffiths comes on with a point to prove.
“Scott Sinclair played up front as well at times. They’re all quality players and will cause you problems.”