My decimated Accies had less than half chance
Brian Rice admits Hamilton can’t afford to be missing half a team against a side like Hibs.
They were battered 4- 0 at home by the Edinburgh outfit, who moved second in the Premiership.
A Martin Boyle penalty and goals from Christian Doidge, Paul McGinn and Kevin Nisbet put Accies to the sword.
But Rice refused to get too downbeat after their recent run of good form crashed to a halt.
And he’s convinced they’ll be better when they get first-team regulars like Hakeem Odoff in, David Templeton, Marios Ogkmpoe, Lewis Smith, Will Collar, Shaun Want and Justin Johnson back from injury.
After the drubbing, Rice said: “I’m missing six starters and nobody can argue with that.
“For a club our size to miss six first-team players is absolutely massive.
“But the boys are in there and giving it their all and that is all I can ask for. They have done that for the last few weeks.
“It was a crazy penalty for us to give away for the first goal.
“But I thought we had a good foothold in the game when they got the second.
“We were playing a good team today, they are the third best team in Scotland at the minute.
“But I’ve said to the boys in the dressing room that we will play worse than that this season and win
games. I am disappointed with the result but I am not too disappointed with the performance.”
Jack Ross has told Hibs fans to enjoy seeing their side sit second top of the Premiership – for 24 hours at least.
The Easter Road club jumped above Celtic in the table after their win.
Neil Lennon’s team have three games in hand, starting with today’s home clash with Killie.
Ross is delighted with the Hibees’ progress but admits that it ’s unrealistic to expect his players to split the Old Firm come next May.
He said: “It’s nice for the fans to look at the table and see themselves in this position after 17 league games, it’s brilliant.
“It might only be for 24 hours but it’s a reflection on how we’ve done this season so far.
“It’s a big ask for us to stay second because Rangers are relentless and Celtic have games in hand.
“But for us, it’s more about points per game and we’ve chipped away at a really good ratio so far.”