GRANT GILLESPIE insists the 'hurting' Hamilton squad are determined to end their barren run as quickly as possible this term.

Accies head into their Lanarkshire derby clash with Motherwell tonight having collected just three points from their last ten top flight outings. It has been far from the start that new boss Martin Canning would have hoped for when he replaced Alex Neil in the dugout earlier this year. After storming out of the blocks and racing into a lofty position in the Premiership, Hamilton are now in danger of missing out on a top half finish this season.

Victory at Fir Park would be a welcome shot in the arm and confidence boost for Canning and his squad. And Gillespie insists their long wait for a win won't play on Hamilton's minds when they take to the field against their struggling local rivals.

He said: "It's difficult going into each game thinking 'we need to win, we need to win' and we have a young squad. But that's football. You have to knuckle down, roll the sleeves up.

"The performances haven't been bad enough for us to think 'it's panic time'. We'll go again on Friday night.

"When you go home, you have to think 'what's happened has happened' and the good thing about football is that there's always the next game. You can't dwell on things too much because you have to start afresh and put it behind you. You dwell on it for a day, but from Monday you have a job to do.

"We're definitely hurting. It would be wrong for anyone to turn round and say we don't care. No-one cares more than us.

"There's just a difference between being hacked off and trying to do something positive about it. I can assure the fans that everyone in here is trying 110 per cent. No-one has taken their foot off the pedal. It's just the way things are going for us at the minute."

Hamilton make the short trip across Lanarkshire aiming for their third-straight win over the Steelmen after impressive 4-0 and 5-0 triumphs already this term. In the other meeting between the sides, it took penalties to separate them as Accies edged through in the League Cup on home soil.

Dougie Imrie, Ali Crawford, Mickael-Antoine Curier, Tony Andreu and Danny Redmond were on target in a five star showing on New Year's Day. And defender Gillespie hopes there will be a repeating showing this evening as Accies eye another demolition derby success.

He said: "I remember getting the first goal, which I think is crucially important at this level. Getting that on the day certainly helped us and we grew in confidence from that moment onwards. We're looking to do the same on Friday night.

"We got the first and the second goals on Saturday but obviously it wasn't to be. But there was plenty of positives to take and hopefully we can take them into Friday night. Motherwell had won two games out of two under their new manager at that point and we knew they would be coming here in confident form.

"Everything we set out to do we achieved on that day. 5-0 was probably what we deserved on the day because I think we dominated them. We'll be looking to do the same now, albeit in different circumstances."