Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin says their 1-0 Championship win over Morton shows how important it is to bring in more players during the January window.
Accies last week brought in Welsh midfielder Tom Sparrow and Australian defender Dylan McGowan on loan deals from Stoke City and Kilmarnock, respectively, and both played in the New Douglas Park victory this afternoon.
Rankin says he can see the difference in his squad, and wants to make sure more new faces come in as they bid to eat into the four-point gap they have behind second-bottom Arbroath, with a game in hand.
“I saw the spirit at Ayr on Saturday and on the Friday when I brought two players in and it galvanised the dressing room,” he said.
“They realised we’re in here, we’re going to fight and we’re going to graft.
“I gave Dylan McGowan the armband last week and you can see why – he’s a leader, a leader of men, and having him in front of [goalkeeper] Ryan Fulton helps the team enormously.
“We’re not finished yet. I think we need to bring more bodies in to help the players here, and if we can do so, we’ve got a real chance.
“That’s what it needs to be. We need to work tirelessly towards the end of the window to get the quality we need.”
While Hamilton’s players might enjoy their Saturday night, Rankin will be looking at next weekend’s Scottish Cup fourth round clash at home to Ross County.
And he says while Andy Winter’s penalty provided a good win for Accies, it’s only their third in the league this season, which he says is “embarrassing”.
“The players will enjoy it,” he said. “It has been a long-time coming on a Saturday – our last league win was a Tuesday night away to Inverness.
“But the players worked tirelessly for me, I know how hard they work, I know the belief they have.
“All of that is down to them, so they can enjoy their Saturday night and I’ll be looking at Ross County in the Scottish Cup next week.
“If you look at our three wins this season in the league – and that’s not enough, that for me is embarrassing and we need to put that right – they’ve all been 1-0 and that’s building momentum.
“Morton turned us over massively at Cappielow [5-0], Queen’s Park did the exact same at Hampden [4-0] and the game was done at half-time.
“Apart from that, we’ve had chances in all of the games to try and take points, it has been pretty equal, and we’ve conceded goals at the wrong time.”
Rankin added: “Today I felt we were men out there, and there wasn’t a lot we could change, so what we had was what we had.
“But that’s why I’m saying this window is really important, to bring in players to help the ones we have.
“I can see it within the players’ attitude and application in training and we know that when the bodies have come in, it has helped.”
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