Don't Blame Me If We Miss Out

Last updated : 17 March 2015 By ed_ScottishFitba

C:WindowsTempphpC7F0.tmpMartin Canning insists there are other factors that will be to blame if Hamilton miss out on a top-six finish in the Scottish Premiership. Accies are chasing their highest league finish in 79 years but have failed to pick up a win since former player-manager Alex Neil left to take over at Norwich in January, taking just three points out of a possible 30 under Canning. They remain in fifth but St Johnstone, Dundee and Kilmarnock all have games in hand and are closing in quick. Canning has, however, blamed the slump on the loss of forwards Mickael Antoine-Curier and Tony Andreu - as well as Neil's on-field contribution - during the transfer window for robbing Accies of their cutting edge.

He said: "I don't think dropping out of the top six would have anything to do with me. I think it would be down to the circumstances that surrounded the club. We lost three influential players and have taken a lot of goals out of our team. Alex was taken out of the middle of the park as well. There have been circumstances behind it. We've had a whole new staff come in and we're trying to make it gel. For me, if everything had stayed the same and the only difference was that Alex had left and another guy had come in, you could probably say that's where the blame lies. But with the changes that have been made, then a dip in form was always potentially capable of happening. We hadn't had a bad run this season until that point and every club gets one. Ours was due to come. It's not as if we are Celtic and winning games comfortably. We obviously expect better in terms of results but we are realistic enough to know this kind of run is always going to happen for a smaller club. When you see the changes made then you can see why it's happened. But that won't affect me in any way. If we do finish top six then great, if we don't then it's been a learning curve for the staff and players."