Canning wants his battlers back on the front foot
Martin Canning last night warned his Hamilton Accies stars they can’t afford a repeat of their first-half slump in Dingwall.
The Accies boss felt his team took the foot off the pedal after massive victories over Partick and Motherwell in their previous two games.
But a second-half recovery following Jamie Lindsay’s opener for the home side, coming via a Dougie Imrie’s penalty and a fine Marios Ogkmpoe strike, turned the game around before Andrew Davies’ equaliser for County.
A relieved Canning admitted: “I’m pleased with a point. If you’d offered me that at half-time, I’d have bitten your hand off.
“I thought in the first half we were really poor.
“It’s so hard – you hear managers talking about it all the time, guarding against that type of first-half performance when you’re on the back of two good wins.
“That’s a challenge for myself and our club for the levels to go up. We need to handle these games and these occasions better.
“If you’re on the back of two good results and think you’re going to get a third easily you are in for a surprise. Ross County today showed great fight, great spirit – and we had to match that and more to get a result.
“In the second half we were better. We came back out and went straight on the front foot, which was important.
“Obviously, we get our two goals and go 2-1 up and from there we were disappointed not to hang on and win the game, losing a goal from a set-piece.
“But on the balance of play, you can’t deny Ross County a point today.”
Canning admitted the draw was huge for his side’s survival hopes.
He stressed: “For us, it’s an important point. Every point is at this stage in the season. That’s a big point for us.
“It is seven from nine against Partick, Motherwell and Ross County, which is a big run. We now have St Johnstone a week on Wednesday when no one else plays. It is big one to try to put more distance between us and the rest.
“We’ve got five games between now and the split and they are all going to be huge.”