Accies defender David Elebert admits he should have won the game against Aberdeen.

Mar 11 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

DAVID Elebert admits he should have grabbed a last-gasp winner for Hamilton against Aberdeen and said the miss left him with a sleepless night on Saturday.

The Irish defender sent a header narrowly wide and then had a shot cleared off the line in the closing stages of Saturday’s 1-1 draw at New Douglas Park.

But the 23-year-old admits the last chance left him wide awake as he agonised over what might have been.

He said: “I had a couple of chances to score and to be honest with you I didn’t sleep on Saturday night. To be fair my header was unlucky but I missed a sitter right at the end. I was six yards out and I sclaffed it.”

Former Preston defender David added: “I think we thoroughly deserved to win and bossed the game.

“Aberdeen came into it at the start of the second half but I thought we were the better team throughout.”

Elebert was also stunned that Aberdeen were able to finish the game with 11 men on the park following Zander Diamond’s horror challenge on Dougie Imrie that left the Accies winger writhing in agony.

David was booked for arguing the case too much with referee Stephen Finnie.

He said: “I think it was up there for a red card, for the tackles we’ve seen lately that have ended up with people getting sent off.

“That’s why I was protesting but the referee booked me for dissent when all I was doing was pleading the case.”

However, Elebert conceded that it says a lot that a club like Hamilton were left bitterly disappointed not to take another three points off Aberdeen.

He said: “That’s the kind of season we’re having. Aberdeen are down in the dumps and not on a good run at the minute, while we feel as though we’re playing well enough to merit results but we’re just not putting the ball in the back of the net.

“An example of that is the chance I missed. People might say it was unlucky but sometimes in football you need to make your own luck.”

Elebert is only too aware that Accies are in a run of games that could make or break their season.

St Mirren and Falkirk visit New Douglas Park on successive Saturdays and David knows how important those games are.

“This whole period is crucial,” he said. “These are the games that we need to start winning to keep ourselves safe.

“All of them are very winnable games for us, against teams round about us, so we’ve got to kick on and see if we can get a couple of three-pointers on the board.

“We play St Mirren here on Saturday and I’m looking forward to that. Most other teams aren’t playing in the SPL this weekend so it would be good to get a win and jump above St Mirren.

“That would give us a bit of breathing space but the most important thing is to get the three points and drag ourselves further away from Falkirk.”