Accies defender confident his side can beat relegation

Feb 11 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BRIAN Easton is confident Hamilton have the players to pull themselves out of the relegation mire... but warned that they must start scoring.

Defender Easton was frustrated as Accies slumped to a 1-0 derby defeat at Motherwell, but admitted his side only really have themselves to blame.

He said: “Going into a derby match you want to pick up the three points, especially in our position at the bottom of the league.

“There were things to be encouraged about in the game, but the main thing is that we’re not scoring goals or even creating a lot of opportunities and that’s something we have to rectify if we’re going to stay in this league.

“We’re confident that we can get out of this, definitely.

“We’re not scoring goals right now but we’ve got good players who are playing reasonably well and we’ve still got guys like Alex Neil and big Mark McLaughlin coming back in, so I’m sure we’ll be fine.

“We can’t panic – we need to just do what we can and hopefully if our luck turns a wee bit we’ll start scoring.”

Like many, Easton thought Accies were denied a stonewall penalty in Saturday’s defeat at Fir Park – but not for a foul on him.

Although the big stopper, on loan from Premiership side Burnley, was clearly pushed, he said: “To be honest I thought it would have been a bit soft.

“There was one later when Flavio Paixao was bundled over at the back post when he looked as if he was going to tap it in, and I thought that was a decent shout for a penalty, but we’re just not getting that just now.”

Having Craig Brown’s Steelmen cross the Clyde to visit New Douglas Park on Saturday, however, is an opportunity to make amends that Easton hopes Accies can take.

He said: “It’s a chance to get a wee bit of pay-back or revenge, or whatever you want to call it, but every game – no matter who it’s against – is going to be vital now because we’re at the bottom of the league.

“It’s still tight down there but we’re going to have to fight for every single point we’re going to get.”