HAMILTON boss Billy Reid admits his side have a point to prove at Easter Road this weekend – but insisted there were still some positives to be taken from their hammering at the hands of Rangers.
The New Douglas Park side went down 7-1 at Ibrox last weekend, despite opening the scoring against Walter Smith's men.
Reid believes that a red card for former Hibee Martin Canning, Accies' third of the season against the Old Firm, was the turning
point in the game with the scoreline at that point 3-1 in favour of Rangers.
James McArthur had given the SPL's bottom side the advantage, only to see that cancelled out with 11 minutes gone by Kenny Miller before a double from Kris Boyd gave Rangers a two-goal cushion. However Reid felt that, up until the sending-off, his side always looked like they still had a chance of hauling themselves back into the game.
Instead Boyd went on to complete his hat-trick before Kyle Lafferty, Nacho Novo and Steve Davis rounded off the scoring.
Accies travel to face Hibs this weekend and could face another barrage of attacks with Steven Fletcher, Derek Riordan and Colin Nish among the attacking options available to boss Mixu Paatelainen. But Reid feels that his side posed enough of a threat of their own at Ibrox to make him believe they are capable of scoring goals at Easter Road.
The Accies manager is among the best in the business when it comes to man-management and hasn't allowed his players to get despondent on the back of their heavy loss at Ibrox. He is hoping an upbeat approach will pay dividends against Hibs.
Reid said: "After any defeat, but particularly one like last weekend, you look for answers.
"I actually think that, despite the scoreline, we did okay.
"Yes, they scored a lot of goals, but up until the sending off I thought that we looked dangerous and we were still creating chances.
"When you are down at the bottom end of the table these things tend to go against you and we're maybe just not getting the rub of the green right now.
"But the players have been working hard and if we keep at it then hopefully things will start to turn back round in our favour again."
And Reid admitted that a trip to Easter Road is no less daunting these days than a game at Ibrox. Paatelainen has gone for three up front on a number of occasions this season and Reid knows they will throw everything possible at his side.
Riordan scored the only goal of the game the last time the sides met back in September and Reid added: "We know that Hibs will be just as dangerous as Rangers. I've watched Hibs a few times recently and I saw their game against Celtic on Sunday.
"It was a great result for them and I am sure that it will have given their boys' confidence a boost.
"There's always a turning point in games and I think John Rankin's goal from about 50 yards was the turning point for Hibs. Artur Boruc maybe should have dealt with it a little bit better but that's just the way it goes sometimes.
"We have to make sure that we are fully focused at all times at the weekend and make sure that we don't make any silly mistakes.
"They beat us 1-0 at our place the last time we played them but I didn't think there was an awful lot between the sides that day and we pinned them back for a fair portion of the game.
"Hopefully we can do the same this time and turn a few of our chances in to goals."
Canning's sending-off means that Accies will have to do without the former Hibs defender for the trip to the Capital, so Reid will yet again have to shuffle his pack.
There's no doubt that Reid would have had plenty he wanted to say to his players this week following that ill-fated trip to Ibrox, but their preparations have been somewhat disjointed because of the freezing weather.
Reid added: "Training has been a bit difficult for us this week, simply because of the weather.
"But I suppose it has been difficult for the majority of clubs because it has been so cold.
"We've not really been able to prepare properly or as much as we would have liked but we've just got to get on with it."
To add to Reid's selection headache due to Canning's absence, Accies are again without Marc Corcoran, who is still suffering with a troublesome hip problem and Reid revealed that the little winger will have to see a specialist to get to the bottom of the injury: "He's been troubled by it for the past four or five weeks so we've had to do without him for a few games now.
"He's a big loss to us and it is unfortunate that, since he came back to Accies, we have not really seen him back at his best as yet.
"We don't really know what triggered the problem, I think it is more wear and tear than anything else but hopefully the consultant will be able to clear everything up for him."
