Hamilton Women’s head coach Gary Doctor says their painful 1-0 defeat to SWPL 1 champions Glasgow City should give them a confidence kick ahead of a huge Lanarkshire derby with Motherwell.
Accies held out valiantly against one of the league’s top three sides until the 87th minute, when Kerry Beattie netted to snatch a draw away from Doctor’s side.
It leaves them bottom of the league but only seven points separates them and Spartans in fifth - with Motherwell in sixth six points away.
A victory in the local derby would pull Hamilton closer to the pack but a defeat or even a draw could leave them further adrift at the bottom.
Doctor says the Glasgow City defeat is sore, but it shows his side can mix it with the league’s best.
He said: “As much as City were very dominant, the further the game goes, the players and staff begin to believe in getting a result. They started to panic too as City couldn’t afford to drop points.
“But the pressure had been building and we had managed to survive. It’s really disappointing not to last another few minutes but it shows the difference between the professional clubs and ourselves.
“We were struggling fitness wise towards the end of the game. The players we had on the bench weren’t really fit enough to be used unless there was an injury.
“It does show we can compete at this level but we need to get results and we haven’t picked up enough of those. It’s probably more important for us than Motherwell.
“We turned in one of our poorest performances last time against Motherwell (a 3-0 loss). We need to learn from that experience and handle it a bit better.”
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