Dick Campbell reckons Hamilton should have inflicted a loss upon his Arbroath side - and John Rankin is taking that as bittersweet encouragement.
Not involved in Scottish Cup action, Accies have had a weekend off to prepare for next Saturday's Championship match with Morton - who are managed by club icon Dougie Imrie.
Head coach Stuart Taylor's side head into it off the back of a 2-2 draw at league leaders Arbroath, in which they were 2-1 up at half-time through Dan O'Reilly and Andy Ryan goals.
But Nicky Low's penalty and a 91st minute spot-kick from Michael McKenna sealed a point for the Gayfield club who are remarkably top of the Championship, despite being the division's only part-time club.
Rankin knows how tough an ask it was to achieve success at Arbroath and the fact their boss believes they could have won shows Hamilton are heading in the right direction.
He said: "Dick Campbell came over to us at full-time and said we deserved the three points. That for me is a kick in the teeth as we lost two points at the death.
"For another manager to say that is pleasing, but it's really annoying as well that we haven't come away with three points.
"It is something to build on. The boys have shown with their performances recently that they can play. They get their foot on the ball and build some nice passages of play."
Accies have been made to pay for not being clinical at both ends of the pitch at times this season, sitting seventh in the Championship.
But Taylor's side have shown signs of improvement as the season has gone on, something Rankin has identified since arriving as assistant last year.
He added: "We play good football. But at Arbroath, we showed a different side to us. We can roll our sleeves up and battle for second balls.
"We did that well so between now and the end of the season, we need to show we can do both. When we put both of them together and a pitch we can get the ball down on, the potential for the team is huge."
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