Hamilton Accies boss wants the spirit of 4-4 Cove draw but without conceding

dailyrecord.co.uk:

John Rankin wants his Hamilton Accies side to emulate the spirit they showed in the 4-4 draw with Cove Rangers – but without conceding four goals.Accies have taken just two points from last season’s League One champions this season, with Cove fighting back to draw 2-2 in September, before Accies staged an unlikely comeback at 4-1 to draw 4-4 at New Douglas Park the following month.Rankin’s side head to the Balmoral Stadium on Friday night bottom of the table, but looking for three points that would make their Christmas by pulling them closer to their hosts in eighth place and potentially ninth place Arbroath, who have played a game more.He said: “They have been good games.

From a neutral’s point of view you’re looking at a 2-2 and a 4-4, and those are obviously good encounters.“But from a manager’s point of view – and I’m sure Jim McIntyre will say the same – you’d rather you weren’t conceding four goals in a game.“From Cove’s point of view, they’re looking at the game here and being 4-1 up, we’re looking at the game up there being 2-1 up and not seeing it out, so from that perspective it’s disappointing.“But at the same time I’ve got to look at the character we showed here in the last game when we were 4-1 down after 50 minutes and the game looks dead and buried.“The energy we got from the second goal, the way it lifted us, and the spirit we got from that, we’ve got to take positives from that, and how we got the point back.”Rankin was disappointed that Saturday’s Championship clash at home to Inverness was frozen off, having defeated the same side 2-0 in the SPFL Trust Trophy fourth round seven days earlier, as their need for points is huge.He added: “I’m looking forward to Friday.