Source: FOOTYMAD
Pressure Shift
Hamilton are increasing the pressure on St Mirren as they fight to avoid the drop Hamilton's Dougie Imrie says the pressure is on rivals St Mirren after he and his teammates kept up their SPL survival hopes with a 1-0 win over Hibs. Nigel Hasselbaink's first-half goal gave Accies their first home SPL win of the season. The gap between the relegation rivals is now just three points as the Buddies lost 1-0 to Inverness. as they moved within three points of second-bottom Saints, who lost 1-0 at Inverness. The Buddies, who play Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Tuesday night while Hamilton travel to Perth to take on St Johnstone, also have an eight-goal advantage, with two games left to play. Asked if the pressure had shifted to Paisley, Imrie said: "Definitely. We are on a tremendous run. St Mirren are looking behind them and the pressure is on them. There are two games left and three points in it so we have to keep going. We have just got to out and win and we have done that recently. They will have probably thought we would drop points today but we have not and they have lost again. So they will be thinking 'what's happening?' but we have to keep going." Accies manager Billy Reid still believes his side can make the great escape but claims St Mirren are still "in the driving seat". He said: "It is all for St Mirren to lose and if they win a game then they stay up. It's up to them, they have got to handle the pressure. They have had two or three opportunities to put us to bed but they haven't managed to do that. They play Aberdeen away in midweek and if they win the game they stay up. I've just said to the players to make sure we do our business." Reid insists his side's profligacy in front of goal had him beside himself in the technical area. He said: "I was acting like a mad man out there. I need to calm down on the side but it is really frustrating. We got chances and we missed them. We got more chances and we missed them. I lost count of the amount of chances to put the game to bed but we just don't do it." Reid admitted his side might have had a penalty awared against them when keeper Tomas Cerny made a clumsy tackle on Hibs striker Ricardo Vaz Te inside the box after Accies had taken the lead. Reid said: "It could have been a penalty if I'm honest, I'm not too sure. We get away with it but we deserved that because it has went against us all season." Vaz Te was stunned to be booked by referee Mike Tumilty for diving at the penalty incident and the Portuguese striker also felt he did not get much protection from the officials all afternoon. He said: "It was obviously a penalty, he didn't get the ball, he got the man. I didn't dive, I got there before the keeper. The ball went in the same direction as I was going and the keeper went in a totally different direction. The linesman had a clear view but he flagged for a yellow card. The referee was miles away so I think it was a linesman's decision. But that was my day. I didn't get any decisions all day. I got kicked left, right and centre but never mind." Hibs manager Colin Calderwood agreed with his player's view of the penalty decision. He said: "It is a penalty kick when you see it on the video. I thought it was at the time but it wasn't given. The sending off was obviously a beneficial to Hamilton plus they scored just before it. We had to do better at the goal and that almost summed up the game."
