Hamilton are confident they can deal a second blow to Motherwell's hopes of beating them

Billy Reid's Hamilton are ready to deal with Motherwell who will be on a revenge mission today. Reid's men head along the road to Fir Park for the second time this season after upsetting the odds in a bad-tempered CIS Cup win last month. Despite it being only the clubs' second meeting in more than 10 years, the game had all the spice of a typical local derby as both sides finished with 10 men as Hamilton win 2-1 after extra-time. It has made what will be their first league meeting in 20 seasons all the more tense and anticipated by fans who like the hard side of football rivalry. The Accies boss said: "The last game, the cup game, it really had the feel of a local derby. There were plenty of incidents and extra-time. It was a fantastic occasion for our supporters because they won. I think that'll make Motherwell dangerous. They'll be looking to make amends for that but we'll be ready. The way I look at it is we've tasted success there before so why can't we go and do it again?"

To record another win Hamilton must end a run of five straight losses in all competitions, which has seen them dumped out of the League Cup and slip to the wrong end of the SPL. Hamilton wanted to point out that most of these reverses have come against Celtic and Rangers. Speaking on Friday, Reid said: "We're not silly, we know we have to start picking up points and we're hoping that will start tomorrow. Three out of our last four games have been against the Old Firm, so that tells you something in itself. We've had a sticky period, we're now past that, and if we continue to play the way we are playing, we will pick up points, make no mistake about it. There's been two or three games where we more than deserved to take something. But individual errors are costing us at the moment and we're being punished for that. We're a young side. The average age of our team going to Rangers the other night was under 21, if you take Chris Swailes out. So that tells you everything. There are no other clubs in the SPL doing that."

Reid admits the last month has taught him more about his side than the preceding two. He said: "You probably learn more in defeat - you see who can stand up to the big occasion. We're young and we play with a freedom but we learned against Rangers and Celtic that we have to give them respect. At the end of the day, they have better players than us. If we let them play then they'll beat us - it's as simple as that. We've learned that and we'll be more ready next time."

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