Hamilton Accies boss 'proud' as he hails fighting spirit in Raith Rovers cup defeat

Hamilton boss John Rankin insists he’s proud of his team for digging in even when trailing 3-0 and down to 10 men in last night’s 4-1 SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-final defeat against Raith Rovers.

Sam Stanton had Raith 1-0 up going into the interval, and Accies came out with a bit more purpose in the second half, but Lee Kilday’s 52nd-minute red card ended their hopes, and Rovers capitalised on that with two quick-fire goals from Jack Hamilton to put the game beyond their reach.

Rankin felt his side showed a bit of personality at that point and sub Dario Zanatta brought them back into the game with a spectacular strike, only for Dylan Easton to restore Raith’s three-goal advantage,

The Accies gaffer said: “We were 3-0 down, I looked at myself and Daz [assistant Darian MacKinnon] and thought ‘is our personality showing through in the team’ and I think it did in that period.

“We were 3-0 down, down to 10 men, but we saw players who were prepared to take the ball, players with personality on the pitch, and we still saw a fighting spirit.

“At 3-0 down do we try and get a goal or accept that we don’t want to concede any more and kill confidence, but I thought ‘let’s go for it’ and make a game of it.

“It’s a great goal, I think you saw that. It was a good bit of passing from one side to the other, Reghan Tumilty gets down, Dario cuts back and finds the top corner.

“It’s a great finish and it’s game on.

“At that point I felt that if we scored the next goal we’d have a real chance and the fourth goal obviously kills it.

“But I’m really proud of my team.

“I look at it and think with 10 men, there are appeals for the first goal, second and the third, and they never downed tools.

“They continued to work, they continued to graft, to