Ayr United v Hamilton Accies: Be ruthless in rematch, says Rankin as Accies chase first win

John Rankin has called on his Hamilton Accies to be ruthless in their rematch with Ayr United this afternoon, as they seek their first win in the Championship this season.

The sides met a fortnight ago in the opening game of the season, with 10-man Accies going down to a 2-0 defeat at New Douglas Park after skipper Scott Martin had been sent off in the second half.

But with both sides out of the Premier Sports Cup, their scheduled midweek clash in October has been brought forward to Saturday and Rankin is eager to make amends for the result last time out.

Accies picked up their first point of the campaign at Morton in a stalemate last weekend, while Scott Brown’s Ayr thrashed Airdrie 5-0 last Friday night to go top of the table. So Rankin knows his charges need to be on their game to halt the Honest Men.

He said: “Ayr are a good side in good form. They’ve got good players in the attacking areas that are always going to cause you problems, so we need to make sure our concentration levels are bang on for the full game.

“You can see when Ayr get their tails up, they are a big threat so we need to be brave enough to play our game and take our chances in the game. That was the difference in the last game, they took theirs and we didn’t.

"The first game of the season we were unfortunate. We hit the bar, hit the post and had a man sent off. Scotty Martin comes back into contention after being suspended last week and we lost him at such a vital time in the last game, sitting at 1-0 when the game could have gone either way.

“Losing his leadership and his drive on the pitch made it difficult for us from thereon in, so hopefully things will be different this time.”

With just a point from two games and his side yet to find the back