Doc’s battle cry to halt the slump
Midfielder talks tough before Rangers visit
Greg Docherty has warned his Hamilton team-mates that their good start is behind them – and asked them to scrap their way back up the Premiership table.
The midfielder scored in the 2-1 defeat at St Johnstone on Saturday, Hamilton’s third loss in a row, and said any plaudits they received for early-season form are gone.
With Rangers visiting the Superseal tomorrow (Friday), Docherty says Accies need to get results back on track.
He said: “It’s a massive game on Friday, because if we lose that’s four games on the spin.
“Everybody was saying Hamilton have made a great start to the season but that’s well gone now.
“That’s three games on the spin and while one of those was against Celtic, the last two against St Johnstone and Hearts were winnable games and we’ve shot ourselves in the foot.
“We know what happens – if you don’t get points now you have even bigger pressure towards the end of the season and we can’t have that.
“We need to get ourselves into a better position and I’m confident that we will do.
“We have a good run of fixtures after the international break but we need to go out on a positive note against Rangers.
“We’re usually good at that when an international break is coming up, so we need to take that from the past and go again on Friday.”
Docherty was hugely disappointed with the defeat in Perth but says if everybody sticks by them they will get their campaign back on the road.
He said: “We need to dust ourselves down, there’s no point dwelling on it. Again, it’s three games we’ve lost on the spin now, which is not like us, and Friday’s game against Rangers is huge now.
“I can’t emphasise how big it is and we know that as players but everybody has to stick by us.
“We are progressing and the gaffer said to us after the game that he feels like a bit of an idiot coming out to the media and saying we are progressing but we are.
“There is a lot of belief but if we don’t take our chances we don’t win games and in this league that’s crucial.
“We knew that last season and there were shades of last season towards the end of that game there and that’s something we can’t have happen to us. We need to get past that, wipe ourselves down and go again.”
With Darian Mackinnon suspended for the visit of Pedro Caixinha’s men, Hamilton will need to alter their side, but Docherty doesn’t think that’s a bad thing, with players ready to come back into the side. He said: “Darian will be hugely missed. But we have quality sitting on the bench.
“We missed Scott Mcmann on Saturday, so we need to get him back.
“It’s frustrating but everybody needs to stick by us – if we do that we’ll get there, we will turn these performances into wins.”