Hamilton Accies gaffer's fury at 'sloppy' goals in defeat at Dunfermline

John Rankin is furious with the way his Hamilton Accies side keep conceding ‘sloppy’ goals after they lost out in a five-goal thriller at Dunfermline.

Accies fell to a third straight defeat in the Championship as Sean McGinty’s header and a stoppage-time penalty from Oli Shaw weren’t enough to take something from their trip to East End Park.

Rankin’s side are now one of four teams sitting joint second-bottom of the table, with the Pars, Accies, Raith Rovers and Morton all tied on 15 points, 10 clear of bottom side Airdrieonians.

And while the gaffer is pleased to see his side regularly finding the back of the net, he knows their defending is leaving a lot to be desired and is their Achilles heel as they try to steer clear of danger.

He said: “It seems just now that we are scoring goals, we are a threat in forward areas, but the goals we are conceding are really poor.

“It doesn’t matter how well you are attacking and how many goals you are scoring, if you concede the goals that we are conceding right now, it is always going to be a difficult afternoon.

“Our structure when we don’t have the ball is pretty good. It’s when we have the ball and our structure in transition that is causing us problems. That’s why we are giving away free-kicks and corners, and that has to be better.

“It was a good away performance for 50-60 minutes, but we conceded some really sloppy goals. I don’t think there was a lot in the game. Both teams were trying to win it. I think we deserved something from the game.”

Rankin added: “We are extremely disappointed with the result. We did well in the first half and I thought we created two really good chances.

“In the second half we come back out at 0-0 but we give away a free-kick in a wide area, we