They fought harder

Manager Stephen Robinson was left unimpressed as his usually combatitive side were outmuscled and outfought by Martin Canning’s dogged Hamilton side.

“Hamilton competed better than us today, which is very unlike our players,” he said.

“They’re allowed an off day, and we were hoping it wasn’t going to be today.

“It’s especially disappointing as it’s a derby and for the number of fans that turned up in the pouring rain.

“I think three quarters left before the end and I wanted to join them to be honest with you.

“I think we made their keeper make a save in the 93rd minute. That probably rounded off our threat in the final third.

“We’re a team that wins second balls and plays on the front foot.

“All of a sudden if you think you’re better than you are football has a funny way of kicking you in the teeth and that’s what’s happened today.”

Robinson was angry at the manner in which Hamilton took the lead, having prepared his side to face up to the Accies power at set pieces.

He said:“I think we were chasing the game right from the start. We gave away a sloppy goal from a set play that we’d warned them about.

“Second phases, their delivery from set plays all day was much better than ours.

“We tried to make positive changes to try and change the game but it didn’t work. I feel like we looked like a team today that’s had a lot of plaudits but didn’t do the basic things well.

Looking ahead to a huge game against Celtic at Fir Park on Sunday, Robinson said:“We’ll be very competitive.

“We’ve had two close games with them recently.

“We’ll get over this game now and get back to basics and doing what we do well to make sure we have an opportunity to beat Celtic.

“If we play like we did today we certainly won’t.”