RYAN Fulton is adamant that Hamilton Accies’ players won’t allow the internet fraud which has left the club £750,000 out of pocket to affect their performances on the field, writes Stewart Fisher. There was certainly little sign of that in the Lanarkshire derby against Motherwell on Saturday, even if they sustained a fifth successive defeat. The Scotland Under-21 goalkeeper, who signed on at the SuperSeal stadium this summer after ten years at Liverpool, said the players had received assurances that they will be protected.

“We’ve got our job to do and that’s something for the people upstairs to deal with,” Fulton said. “We’ll just go about our own business on the park and it doesn’t affect us. We were given a heads-up about it but we were also given assurances that everything will be fine.”

With Gary Woods out injured, this was a first Premiership start for a player who had spent international week keeping goal for the Scotland Under-21s against England and Latvia. While he faced quite an aerial bombardment, he produced a few fine saves and had no chance with either goal.

“Obviously, the result wasn’t great but it was nice to get out there and play and now I hope I can keep my place in the team,” said Fulton. “Playing for the Under-21s gave me more confidence and it helped keep my eye in. Like I say, training is one thing but dealing with through balls at match pace is quite another. We’ve not had the results we wanted recently but we’ve got to kick on and go in fresh in our next two games, away to Ross County and at home to Partick Thistle. We’ll be looking to pick up three points in each of them.”