Hamilton Accies boss: Media looking for an upset motivated us to beat East Kilbride

dailyrecord.co.uk:

John Rankin insists the media sniffing another Scottish Cup upset for Hamilton Accies was the motivation for his side's emphatic third round win over East Kilbride.Accies were dumped out of the competition at the same stage last season by West of Scotland League side Auchinleck Talbot and Lowland League East Kilbride fancied their chances of inflicting more misery.However, Championship side Accies made sure their name went into the hat for Monday's fourth round draw as a stunning Andy Ryan hat-trick - the club's first in the competition since Neilly Hood in January 1973 during a 4-0 win over Brora - and a Ryan One strike delivered a 4-0 victory at New Douglas Park.Ryan, who played under EK gaffer Kevin Rutkiewicz when he was boss at Stirling Albion, haunted his old boss with three fine strikes, the last of which was the pick of the bunch as he lobbed Kilby keeper Curtis Lyle from 30-yards.And Rankin said their display was inspired by some in the media looking for his side to come a cropper.He said: "The press were looking for an upset and I'm glad - because that was part of the motivation."Ten of our players here were at Auchinleck last season so we were determined that wasn't going to happen again."To begin with, it [the way Accies played] wasn't what we set out to do and I think you've got to give credit to East Kilbride for that.

They made it difficult for us."We had two good chances right at the beginning of the game through Dario [Zanatta] and [Lewis] Smith.

If we make it 1-0 within a few minutes it makes it a different game."East Kilbride had two really good chances as well which we were fortunate they didn't take."After that we played some really good stuff at times."East Kilbride had a period in the game, about