Another sore one for Accies
Insult to injury but Rice is positive
Injury-ravaged Accies slipped two points adrift at the foot of the Premiership but defiant gaffer Brian Rice hailed the display his side’s best of the season.
The Hamilton boss insists a win was the least they deserved against Dundee United and is convinced the spirit shown offers hope of top-flight survival.
Although decimated by injury, Accies squandered a number of chances to level Marc McNulty’s early strike and the full- time result left Rice in a state of shock.
He said: “I can’t believe we didn’t win, never mind drawing. With the amount of chances and the way we played, that’s the best we have played this season by a long way.
“I thought the goal was coming when you’ve got that amount of possession and you’re playing as well as we were. You expect one to go in.
“We made a mistake at the other end and Dundee United did a job on us. But I can’t be any more proud than I am today, it was a great response.”
Accies could only muster six subs for their bench due to the increasing crock list which was compounded by the loss of No.1 Ryan Fulton. Kyle Gourlay deputised and his clean sheet lasted only six minutes, the stand-in at fault for the goal.
His poor goal-kick landed at the feet of Jeando Fuchs who fed McNulty and the striker buried his effort with clinical precision. Lawrence Shankland then curled an effort wide of target from the edge of the area.
United’s attacking double act were posing big problems for Hamilton and McNulty found Shankland with a clever chip but he couldn’t capitalise in the 16th minute.
Accies asserted themselves as the half progressed and a low drive by Scott McMann was parried to safety by Benjamin Siegrist just after the half hour. Kyle Munro was next to be denied by the keeper with a shot rattled in from 20 yards.
Ross Callachan scooped a shot inches over from closerange as Rice’s side maintained some pressure but they still had nothing to show for their all their endeavour.
Anot her st r i ke f rom Cal lachan was blocked by Siegrist seconds after the restart before Ronan Hughes glanced a header past a post from Munro’s delivery.
It was chances galore for Accies as Hakeem Odoff in cracked in a low effort in the 63rd minute but Siegr ist produced a strong hand to increase the frustration for Rice’s side.
Bruce Anderson summed up their day by blasting a shot over when he should have done far better as United continued to ride their luck.
Temp e r s began to flare as McNulty and Aaron Ma r t i n both went into the book for squaring up. There were two decent penalty shouts for United before it was all over as Odoffin clipped the feet of Louis Appere.
Bobby Madden waved away the furious appeals and then McMann was tugged by Peter Pawlett. Again the referee didn’t want to know.
Rice isn’t for conceding and believes his players can yet save their Premiership futures.
He added: “I’m gutted about the result because of the effort they put in. It’s hard to take. “I will be a while taking the positives from it because there were so many.
“We need to make sure we don’t get too down about it because we have a big derby next and if we take that performance into the match we will give ourselves a chance.”