Source: Team_Talk
Bairns boss stays optimistic
Falkirk manager Steven Pressley roared and banged a table in defiance after the 1-0 defeat to Hamilton left his side still bottom of the SPL.[LNB] With relegation rivals St Mirren and Kilmarnock playing each other in Paisley, the Bairns had the chance to climb off the basement for the first time since February.[LNB]However, Marco Paixao's first-half header gave Hamilton a deserved interval lead and although the visitors had to withstand a second-half pounding, they held firm.[LNB]Falkirk play fellow strugglers St Mirren next week and Pressley, in a short and sharp post-match press conference, slammed the table as he insisted: "I will make this clear today. I'm going to make this statement. There is no way that while I'm the manager of this football team we will go under.[LNB]"The players know that and it is clear. We will be ready next week, absolutely ready next week for the battle and the fight.[LNB]"I wish Saturday was tomorrow and I want to make it clear - we will be ready for next week.[LNB]"I'm bitterly disappointed. The one thing that went against us today was time. We just ran out of time.[LNB]"If you add another 10 minutes on to that game I'm very confident that there would have been another outcome, no doubt about it.[LNB]"We were relentless in the second half, with our pressure, desire and appetite to win a football match."[LNB]Asked why he was so confident, Pressley's snapped: "Because I see that effort and I know what we are all about.[LNB]"There is such a burning desire there and we will pick ourselves up and we will be ready next week. Okay?"[LNB]Pressley then slammed the table a couple of more times as he left a rather startled press pack.[LNB]In a less animated way, Hamilton boss Billy Reid praised his makeshift squad for coping with several changes before and during the match.[LNB]Tomas Cerny, Brian Easton and James McArthur were all out injured and Martin Canning and Mark McLaughlin's lack of fitness meant they had to be replaced in the second half as the visitors tried to stem the dark blue tide.[LNB]Reid said: "We had a lot of problems today. We had Cerny, McArthur and Easton, huge players for us, all out.[LNB]"We had Martin McCanning and Mark McLaughlin in their bed for the last four days and that showed from the start.[LNB]"They dug in but we had to change them and it was a hard shift for us.[LNB]"In the first half we were excellent, we cut them open two or three times and should have went in 2-0 up.[LNB]"It was backs-to-the-wall in the second half but they never really created anything behind us.[LNB]"However, when they are banging balls in to the box and your two centre-backs are sitting behind you (in the dugout) then you have got problems. But we dug in."[LNB]The Accies boss dismissed the notion that Falkirk might have had a penalty in the first half when their skipper Darren Barr clashed with Simon Mensing.[LNB]"No, not at all," Reid said. "I think the guy knocked the ball out of the park and it was an accidental clash."
