Woods eyes Hamilton No1 spot for keeps

Former Ross County goalie hopes to seal regular spot between the sticks after pulling off a series of top saves

Aberdeen ...................... 2 Hamilton ...................... 0

Andy Mcgilvray

Gary Woods hopes to have repaid boss Martin Canning’s faith in him by preventing Aberdeen from running riot against Hamilton in their Premiership opener at Pittodrie on Sunday.

Woods made a string of top saves to deny Ryan Christie, Greg Tansey, Scott Wright and Shae Logan, but couldn’t prevent Anthony O’connor and Miles Storey from keeping the points in Aberdeen.

Former Ross County keeper Woods hopes to have earned a regular place between the sticks, and said: “At the end of the day competition for places is always good, it’s healthy, but the gaffer has given me the goahead and I think I’ve more than justified his decision on Sunday.

“It’s not just about me though, it’s about the team and hopefully we can pick up points and do well this season.

“We lost a lot of late goals last year that cost us points, so hopefully we move on from that and kick on, because we don’t want to get into the scrap that we were in last season.”

Although defender Xavier Tomas’s red card after 61 minutes undoubtedly cost Hamilton, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Greg Docherty forced a fine save from Joe Lewis, who also had to look lively to deny Ali Crawford, while the visitors were unlucky not to break through the Dons defence on a couple of other occasions.

Better teams than Hamilton will lose at Pittodrie this season, and there have been times when the county side has played a backs-to-the-wall game at Pittodrie and