THE MIND MAP TO SAFETY
Canning hits back at Foran’s verbal digs and insists Inverness are feeling the heat
AKNOWING grin met Richie Foran’s attempts to alter the psychology of Survival Saturday. Whatever else might decide the outcome, Martin Canning is pretty sure it won’t come down to his counterpart’s attempt at mind games.
Foran sought to ladle pressure on to the shoulders of Hamilton’s players in the wake of Inverness recording a life-saving midweek victory at Dens Park. His method was none too subtle.
The big question now, the Irishman insisted, was whether Accies would crumble under the weight of their burden in today’s encounter with Dundee. Anything less than a victory would leave the door open for the Highlanders to dodge the automatic drop, nick the play-off place and send Hamilton down.
Not surprisingly, Canning has a somewhat different assessment of the high-stakes state of play. How can his side be the ones under the greater pressure when they are masters of their own fate? A one-point advantage may be slim, but it could yet prove decisive.
Indeed, Canning believes Foran’s relentless focus on the mindset in Lanarkshire is simply a ruse to try to ease the strain within the Inverness ranks.
‘I think Richie is doing what you would expect him to do — trying to shift the pressure off of his team on to our team,’ said the Hamilton manager.
‘I don’t think that’s the way it is at all, the pressure is still very much on them.
‘They’ve got to go and win the game to give themselves a chance but, if we go and do our job and win our game, then it doesn’t matter what they do.
‘For us, it’s about going out and concentrating on ourselves, getting our performance right and winning the game.
‘If I was in Richie’s position, I think I’d be doing the same thing. You’re trying to take all the pressure off you and put it on someone else.
‘There is still massive pressure on them, though, because they are the team that is bottom of the league.’
Bemoaning their luck, or the glaring absence of it, in recent defeats to Motherwell and Ross County, Canning retains faith in his squad producing when it matters most.
As it is, the play-offs now represent a best-case scenario. Staying up will mean coming through the same process that saw Accies promoted three years ago.
Canning played in that epic shoot-out success over Hibernian. Photographs of the celebrations adorn corridor walls within the Superseal Stadium.
‘The boys walk past those pictures out there every single day, and you know those feelings, but it’s just about us making sure that we stay in the Premiership,’ added Canning.
‘That was the goal at the outset. We’ve put ourselves in a position now that I don’t think we should be in, but the reality is that we’re here for a reason.
‘There have been 37 games and we haven’t done enough in those games to get ourselves out of this trouble we’re in.
‘We need to make sure now that we go and do our job properly against Dundee, because three points can give us momentum going into the play-offs, as well. Those will be two huge games to try to get through.’
Canning expects to have captain Michael Devlin and striker Alex D’Acol available after both missed Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat in Dingwall.
For Devlin, it will be a first appearance since being abused by an irate Accies supporter at the end of last weekend’s derby against Motherwell.
‘It was one guy,’ stressed Canning. ‘We’ve had so many emails this week from people to let Michael know that they are 150-per-cent behind him.’
Meanwhile, should the worst happen for Canning and his team, there will be no mixed emotions for Dundee midfielder Paul McGowan despite spending 2009 on loan at Hamilton from Celtic.
‘I’m an ex-Hamilton player? I couldn’t care,’ shrugged McGowan.
‘If they go down, so be it. I’m a Dundee player, my loyalties are with Dundee. I’m a winner and I want to win for Dundee. I don’t care that we are safe. I want to win every game. To me, there are no meaningless games in football.
‘So I will be going down there fired-up. I want to go there and win.’
Despite securing top-flight football for another season at Dens, McGowan cannot wait to see the back of a difficult campaign.
And if there are any team-mates celebrating merely staying up, the straight-talking 29-year-old believes they would be better off at another club. ‘I am not happy,’ he said. ‘For me, a top-six finish was definitely possible for us this season. At one stage, we were in the top six, ahead of Partick Thistle when we played them. We could have pushed on that day but we didn’t. It was the story of our season.
‘So I’m disappointed. I’m certainly not going to be celebrating just staying up. Not at a club like this with the players we have got here.’