Jim McAlister says Accies haven’t hit top gear yet this season.

Nov 10 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

JIM McALISTER insists Hamilton have still to hit top gear this season, but reckons Saturday’s 3-1 win over Queen of the South proves they’re ready to get stuck in.

Accies had to dig deep against the Doonhamers after Kevin Smith had cancelled out Matt Paterson’s opener, with both McAlister and Dougie Imrie clearing off the line in the second half.

But sub James Chambers set up a late strike by Imrie, who then turned provider for Grant Anderson to seal a 3-1 win which takes Accies up into third place in the First Division.

McAlister says it’s a big improvement on last weekend’s disappointing 3-2 defeat against Ayr United, but believes there is more to come.

He said: “That was a massive win for us and the boys are buzzing in the dressing room.

“We showed great character to come back and win this game.

“After last week the heads could have gone down but the boys – from the goalie right through all the subs – all dug deep and we managed to get a great win.

“There are still improvements for us to make; I don’t think we’ve played well all season but in this league you don’t always need to play well to get results, sometimes it’s just a battle.

“I thought everyone to a man were battling away and fortunately we came away with a win.”

McAlister acknowledged that his own goal-line clearance from Marc McCusker was a turning point, while he hopes that both Matt Paterson and Dougie Imrie can take confidence from their goals and go on scoring runs.

He said: “Sometimes when you clear it off the line it can be a game-changing moment and fortunately I managed to keep it out.

“Once we went 2-1 up I thought we defended really well and they never really looked like scoring after that – if anything it was going to be us hitting them on the counter-attack, and we did.

“Matt and Dougie scored two excellent goals – both started outside the post and curled into the corner so it will do both of them a world of good.

“Dougie is a good player to come off the bench but it could have gone either way. He was disappointed to be left out and the toys could have come out of the pram, but he showed a great attitude when he came on, and scored a great goal.

“It has been a long time coming for Dougie, and hopefully it’s the first of many this season.

“Big Matt has been due a goal for a while, and it was a great finish so hopefully he can build on that as well.”

Accies now head into a crunch clash with fifth-placed Livingston on Saturday, knowing that a win and results going their way could take them to within a point of Falkirk in second spot. However, defeat could see the Lions leap-frog Accies.

McAlister said: “They’re all tough games because the league is so tight.

“You go from being a couple of points off the top of the league if you win to a couple of points off the bottom if you lose.

“We just take it one game at a time and hopefully we can build on Saturday’s result.

“The boys will be absolutely flying after that and hopefully we can take it into the game on Saturday.

“We’re up into third now and we can only look after ourselves and worry about other teams later on. Hopefully we can get the win on Saturday and get a wee bit closer to the top.”