Hamilton Accies Women head into survival play-off as boss says damage was done before final day

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Gary Doctor insists Hamilton Accies Women’s relegation play-off fate was sealed earlier in the season and not in Sunday’s final day draw with Dundee United in SWPL1.Accies drew 1-1 away to United on Sunday and that consigned them to a winner-takes-all clash with SWPL2 side Gartcairn at Broadwood next month.With bottom side Glasgow Women relegated last month, Accies made a late rally to avoid the play-off, winning three of their last four going into the game, and needed to beat United on Sunday to pull off a great escape.It wasn’t to be as Accies couldn’t add to Tara McGonigle’s 80th minute equaliser – having had two penalty claims turned down – and boss Doctor said it is slip ups across the season that have ultimately sent them into a shootout for survival.He said: “The girls gave it a hell of a go.

I can’t fault the players’ efforts over the last few weeks or their output.“It just wasn’t enough in the end. We can look back over the last eight weeks, where we’ve only had one defeat in six games, as a period where we’ve actually hit form but just left it too late.“The damage was done earlier in the season when we’ve dropped points in a number of games I can think of, which left us which too much to do.“But the players have been excellent during a hectic schedule and we’ve not had a lot to work with in that period.

There wasn’t much room for manoeuvre.“We just need to take that confidence we are playing with at the moment into the play-off and not be too deflated – and I don’t think we are too deflated.“Being in that position where we were five points behind for a while, we’ve always had one eye on it.“In the background, the staff have been thinking we might need to prepare for it, but we gave ourselves the chance to avoid