Hamilton Accies Women have 'work to do' in survival battle as Aberdeen defeat opens up gap

Gary Doctor admits Hamilton Accies Women have given themselves a lot fo work to do to avoid the relegation play-off into SWPL2 after a narrow defeat to Aberdeen on Sunday saw them fall five points behind their rivals.

Doctor's side are second bottom and currently occupy the play-off spot, with automatic relegation all but avoided as bottom side Glasgow Women are pointless at the foot of the table and 16 points adrift with seven games to go.

A result in Aberdeen would have been a big boost to their survival hopes but they fell to a 2-1 defeat after Hannah Thomson Coakley's 77th minute strike proved to be just a consolation.

And Doctor said: "It's certainly not where we want to be. We've given ourselves a lot to do in the coming games.

"But the main thing is it is all against teams we can get points against.

"On Sunday we let ourselves down with our first half performance. We didn't get into the game at all or compete well enough.

"In the second half, like we've done previously this season, we react positively when we fall behind but we can't keep doing that, and it left us with too much to do in the end to even get a point.

"We haven't got any concerns over the automatic place now and it has been a jostle for quite a long time now between ourselves Anerdeen and Dundee United to avoid that play-off spot.

"It could be a safety net from going into SWPL 2 but we don't want to find ourselves in that position. In the jeopardy of a single match play-off anything can happen, so we want to get away from that.

"We still have seven games to play and that is still a significant part of the season. There's a lot of football still to play."

Accies now travel to Spartans this Sunday looking to close the gap on the Dons and Dundee