Mihaiholds hishandsup fordefeat
PARTICK THISTLE .................................. 1 HAMILTON ACCIES ............................... 0
Defender Mihai Popescu reckons Hamilton Accies would have taken at least a point from their Championship clash against Partick Thistle if it wasn’t for his error.
The Romanian defended in assured fashion for the majority of the 1-0 defeat at Firhill, which was settled by Lewis Mayo’s 60th minute goal.
Kyle Turner’s corner met the head of the Thistle defender, who Popescu was tasked with marking at the set-play. He was unable to track him properly.
It’s left the on-loan Hearts centreback with plenty of regret over the incident, as he believes Hamilton were better than Thistle over the 90 minutes.
Popescu said:“i thought we were the better team but because of my mistake, they score from a set-piece.
“That mistake from me cost us at least one point. I have to mark the man – he was mine – so it’s my mistake. I had to get more tight with him. It happened, but I am not happy about what I did on the pitch.
“It’s frustrating when we dominate the game and a have a lot of the ball.
“We had the most chances in the game and then they got a set-piece where I was not focused.
“So that happened. I lost my man and it cost us at least one point.
“I don’t think they had many real chances. I don’t think they had a shot on our side (before the goal) so it’s even more frustrating.
“It was one mistake but you could see that we were the better team.
“I come into this team with experience and I hope to bring that to the team. I need to help the younger ones but I also have to be more careful on the pitch.
“I don’t want to do what I did again.” Stuart Taylor’s Accies have slipped to eighth in the Championship and they’ve kept just two clean sheets in 15 league matches.
The division’s bottom half is split by just one point, with Morton and Queen of the South propping up the table.
Following Hamilton’s eighth defeat in 15 games this season, Taylor said:“i think the harsh reality of football is that it’s very difficult to win games of football if you don’t keep clean sheets.
“It’s difficult to win games if you don’t score goals. But I thought we competed well in the game and you could tell by their reaction at full-time, the way they celebrated, that it was a big one for them in terms of how we played.
“I don’t think we done enough to win the game but I also think we didn’t do enough to lose.
“It had 0-0 written all over it.”