Hamilton Accies can go top of League One, but boss focused only on Queen of the South

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Hamilton Accies can go top of League One with a win over Queen of the South on Saturday, but boss John Rankin insists he’s not interested in league tables at this point.Accies went a point behind leaders Falkirk on Tuesday night with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Annan, while the Bairns were held to a 0-0 draw by Montrose.Rankin’s side went 2-0 up inside 19 minutes with goals from Jackson Longridge and Lewis Smith.Annan pulled a goal back through Michael Garrity in 23 minutes and Lee Kilday was sent off for a second booking in 49 minutes, but Accies held on for a vital win that puts them in a great position.But Rankin said: “I’m honestly not interested in the league table just now, that will take care of itself later in the season.“Right now we just need to concentrate on ourselves, beat the team that’s in front of us, and try to get out of the game what we can.

On Tuesday we were under the cosh in the second half and had to show a different side of ourselves.“We had to be resilient and it sounds silly after going down to 10 men, but we had to be disciplined and we were.“They were spirited and led well.

I thought Dylan McGowan was invaluable with his experience, making sure we defended our box, that nothing came in, and Scotty Martin in front of him was good as well.“Those two marshalled everyone through it, and that experience got us through the night.“But I’m just absolutely delighted to get the three points.

That’s a difficult place to go to, we knew that, we never underestimated it, and it’s even harder with 10 men, so that feels like a right good victory.”Rankin added: “We need to be thankful that we got the three points after a silly mistake, but we kick on and we’re ready to go on Saturday now.“Queen of the South come