Martin Canning was so disgusted by his Hamilton side’s performance against Morton on Tuesday night that he can’t even bring himself to watch the recording.
Normally, Canning would analyse previous matches to identify areas where his team can improve, but the deficiencies in their display as they crashed out of the Betfred Cup were so glaring that he didn’t need to see them again.
It was all the more surprising for the Accies boss coming on the back of their creditable showing at Ibrox three days previously.
Canning has urged his players to put the horror showing behind them quickly, with a huge game at home to Kilmarnock tomorrow.
“Tuesday night was frustrating,” Canning said. “In fact, we didn’t even try to analyse it afterwards because we knew – well, I knew – that we had to just try and forget about it.
“It’s done and now we need to make sure that we simply focus on the Kilmarnock game. Taking an early lead worked against us because we thought we had the game won and Morton felt that they had nothing to lose.
“But there are no excuses – the better team on the night went through. It’s disappointing because you can say that there was a comedown after that performance at Ibrox.
“We tried to guard against it but that’s what it felt like. We lost far too many headers at set-pieces and that’s not like us.
“It had better be a one-off thing because we’re going to spend time working on that in the next few days.”
Canning has warned his players that they have to heed his instructions better, after they seemingly ignored his cautions about the dangers that Morton would pose on Tuesday evening.
“We had spoken about the threat from Ross Forbes’ deliveries and of Jai Quitongo getting in behind but they were the two things that cost us,” he said.
“That information had been passed on to them and they’re a good bunch of lads but they didn’t carry it out on the night.
“Fortunately, we have a chance to put that right quickly against Kilmarnock on Saturday and, this season, our games against them, Dundee, Ross County and Inverness are going to be massive and we need to make sure that we take points from them.
“Last season we didn’t do well at home against Killie so we need to do better this time out.”
The news that Josh Magennis had left Rugby Park for Charlton ahead of Saturday’s match was welcomed by Canning, although he hopes that the end of that particular transfer saga won’t galvanise the rest of Lee Clark’s squad.
“It’ll be difficult for them to replace the guy because he was one of their better players and a real goal threat,” he said.
“Like us, though, they’re in a position where you’re trying to give these guys the opportunity to go and play elsewhere, particularly if the club can make a bit of money from it.
“Kilmarnock will probably look upon it as a decent bit of business because they signed him on a free and then got money for him.
“You can look at Josh going as adding to the doom and gloom which appears to surround the club.
“Then again, this has been rumbling on in the background for a while now and maybe that’s been the cause of some of the discontent. Now it’s over and done with and Lee Clark knows what his group is going to be.
“He can use that as a rallying call, if you like, but it won’t affect the way we prepare for the game.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here