Solid defence underpins Saints revival

Davidson20,wright36,kennedy 54, Wotherspoon 74 and David Wotherspoon. It has been a remarkable turnaround for the club since they were hammered 6-0 by Celtic last month and Cleland says the revival is built on encouraging foundations.

He said: “The competition for places is high and if we can keep that going then we’ll be delighted. Matty Kennedy is getting better and better and he’s now added goals to his game.

“He can play many positions for us and his form at the moment is great. Hopefully he can keep it up.

“The first time Drey Wright got at Ziggy Gordon we got a goal off it. We do encourage our wide players to be positive and go at full-backs and get us crosses and get us goals. They’ve certainly added to that this season.”

Davidson earned Saints the breakthrough after 19 minutes when he pounced as Accies keeper Gary Woods could only parry a Wright cross. Wright then found the net via Gordon’s shoulder.

Hamilton found themselves three behind eight minutes into the second-half as Kennedy slipped Wotherspoon’s through ball under Woods. The pair combined 20 minutes later for the fourth, as Kennedy seized on Delphin Tshiembe’s slack back-pass to centre for Wotherspoon to hammer home.

It was a fifth defeat in seven games for Hamilton, whose meek performance bemused manager Martin Canning. He said: “In this league the team that competes the hardest will usually win or give themselves a good chance of winning. But if one team is bang at it and the other is half a yard off then that team will win. That’s what’s happened.”