Goalkeeper Ryan Fulton reckons Hamilton Accies have found a safe pair of hands in boss John Rankin and insists the club are now playing with more belief than last season.
Rankin was assistant to Stuart Taylor in the second half of the campaign which saw Accies finish and 10 points off the promotion play-off spots.
But now that the former Hibs and Hearts midfielder has the reins, Fulton feels he has improved the group and instilled a belief they can push for promotion this term.
The 26-year-old, who signed a contract extension at the club last month keeping him at New Douglas Park until 2024, said: "We've got a great group in there. It's one of the best changing rooms to be in and you can see the togetherness there on the pitch with the gaffer and the staff.
"Everyone has got each other's back and we are all pushing for the same thing.
"It's nice to have that.
"I think there is a bit more belief there this season, that's the biggest difference from last season.
"Looking at the way we've started, we went unbeaten for a while there - okay, Raith was a bit of a blip - but I think there is more belief there that we can push ourselves and get up that table, see where it takes us.
"As a group, we expect to be up there but the gaffer says we can only deal with what's in front of us. Keep dealing with the Saturdays and picking up points will take us there."
Last week delivered Hamilton first win under Rankin with a 1-0 win at home to Arbroath also their first clean sheet after three straight draws and a 2-0 loss to Raith.
Fulton was delighted to get off the mark and hopes they now kick on today when they travel to newly-promoted Cove Rangers, who have lost four of their first five games under new boss Jim McIntyre.
He added: "There was a couple of games before Arbroath where we should have got the three points but we never, so now we need to really try and kick on from there.
"It was nice to see that 1-0 out after conceding goals late on in recent games, so we've got another monkey off our back with that.
"But we know Cove will be as tough as any game in this league.
"They've just come up so they will want to show that they deserve to be here.
"We are expecting to be in a game but we just need to focus on ourselves and do what we are good at."
Accies boss John Rankin isn't getting carried away by their first win but says they need to take confidence from seeing the game out against Arbroath.
Asked about how he would assess their start to the campaign, he said: "Would we have taken one defeat? Of course you would. Would you have taken one win? No.
"Looking at the real positives, we have been in the lead at two very difficult away grounds in Thistle and Ayr and we've managed to come away with points.
"We need to be seeing these games out so that experience of having leads in games should hopefully stand us in good stead for the rest of the season.
"On the other side we've also got a benchmark of how bad it can be from the defeat to Raith, so from that point of view the demand is on the players to make sure we don't go back to that.
"Saturday will be a difficult game.
"Jim McIntyre is very experienced, he knows how to set teams up, he knows how to get out of this division.
"He has been in the game a long time and been successful at the teams he's been at.
"They've got lots of good footballers: Fraser Fyvie, Iain Vigurs, Charlie Gilmour in the middle of the pitch.
"These are guys who can keep the ball and retain possession so it will be a difficult game.
"They maybe haven't picked up results recently but that doesn't make them any easier to play against.
"I've been to Cove before. It's a nice ground and a lovely surface to play on but they will make it as intimidating as they can for us."
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