Good football is the key in Accies surge

Published on Monday 9 May 2011 11:38

Hamilton manager Billy Reid believes encouraging good football is the key to continuing their fight against relegation.

Accies have shown a resilience in the face of adversity by taking ten points from their last four matches to raise hopes of an unlikely escape - it had taken 23 games to collect their previous ten points.

Hamilton go into tonight's game against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park knowing that achieving a better result than St Mirren at Aberdeen will give them a realistic chance of avoiding relegation.

But Reid will keep the emphasis on performances rather than focusing on his players' mentality. "The one thing we'll try to do is go and try to play," he said.

"The important thing is how you play and in recent weeks some of our play has been excellent. Our style of play has been pleasing, we are scoring goals, we have kept clean sheets in the last two games.

Captain and central midfielder Alex Neil's return from a hip injury has helped Accies close the deficit on St Mirren from 12 points, and Reid added: "It's all credit to the players. A big issue now is that Alex Neil is back.

"We are playing exactly how we did, just having Alex back and leading the team is a big influence." .