Hamilton manager Martin Canning has backed striker Rakish Bingham to keep improving after he signed an extension to his deal at the Superseal Stadium on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old attacker has now committed to the Lanarkshire club until the end of next season, having joined from Hartlepool United back in August 2016.

Former Wigan, Falkirk and Mansfield Town man Bingham has hit 11 goals in 54 appearances for Accies, and he climbed off the bench to play a key role in Hamilton’s second goal in their win over Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday, holding the ball up well for Greg Docherty to run onto and set up Darren Lyon for a simple finish.

And his manager believes that there is a lot more to come from the pacy forward, both in terms of goals and his general play, now that his immediate future has been settled.

“Rakish has improved the longer he’s been here and there is so much potential for Rakish to get better again as well,” said Canning. “He’s quick, strong, he’s got two good feet, he can finish. I believe he’s already a good player but I believe he can get better.”

There were no huge celebrations from Canning’s squad following Hamilton’s first league win at Ibrox since 1926 last weekend, and their first at all at the venue since Adrian Sprott’s famous goal shocked Rangers in the Scottish Cup in 1987.

The final whistle had barely blown before Canning was warning his men that they must focus on Saturday’s visit of Hibernian, and he has been reinforcing that message all week to his squad.

While he welcomed the bonus of an unexpected three points, Canning knows they will count for little if they are to go on to lose to teams they feel they should be competing against.

That’s not to say that Hibs are one such team with their greater resources, but having won at Easter Road earlier in the season, Canning is keen for his team to show that these weren’t freak results.

“The biggest thing for us, as much as you have to enjoy a result like that because it doesn’t happen very often, is you need to refocus,” he said.

“It can be quite easily forgotten a couple of weeks down the line if you’re not picking up results. Nobody remembers that you beat Rangers or beat Hibs at the start of the season, it’s the here and now.

“When we went to Hibs and beat them earlier this season, they were just off the back of beating Rangers at Ibrox, and maybe approached our game with the same mentality that we are trying to avoid approaching this game with: you’ve had a really good result and you just think the next game is going to take care of itself. That’s not the way it works. That’s a warning for us.”

Midfielder Grant Gillespie is pressing for a return to first-team action after playing another under-20s game during the week, but playmaker Ali Crawford is not expected to return from a knee injury in time to face Hibs.

Meanwhile, Canning revealed that captain Michael Devlin is still on course to return from a cruciate ligament injury around the turn of the year, with a recent tidy-up operation not hampering the timescale of his recovery.

Canning is hoping that he will be able to call upon a fully-fit Devlin prior to Christmas in a best-case scenario, but if not, then definitely after the winter break in January.

“He’s getting there,” he said. “He had to get an operation on his cartilage two weeks ago but that won’t set him back. He is still on course for December/January to get back playing.”