Rangers were good but we restricted them in the second half, says Accies Women boss

Hamilton Accies Women boss Gary Doctor insists his side can take positives from their second half display against Rangers as they go into the SWPL1 split, despite being on the end of a 6-0 defeat.

Accies restricted the title hopefuls to just a single goal in the second half of Sunday’s clash, having been 5-0 down at the break.

The gulf between the two sides is massive but Doctor says his young players can be pleased with how they handled the second half, as they were missing key players.

Doctor, whose side sit second bottom of the table, said: “We were up against it from the start on Sunday so it was a difficult one.

“We had a lot of players unavailable so we were down to the bare bones.

“That made things difficult from the outset. The first half wasn’t great for us. A lot if things we did reasonably well but we were punished heavily.

“I thought our second half performance was excellent and we really limited Rangers. We showed a lot more understanding of what we had to do. That was a real plus for us.

“Our second half performance is what we really need to focus on.

“The players took heart from the way we performed in the second half, given we didn’t have many first team players available to change things on Sunday.

“They had to stick it out. It was a big test of character and personality.

“Rangers were pushing for more goals so that was really good for us [to limit them to one].”

Accies have a free week as they prepare to face derby rivals Motherwell in the first post-split match on March 26.

Doctor added: “We’ve now got a couple of weeks to prepare for the Motherwell game and a couple of home games to get started. That can give the players a lift and give us a chance to get points on the board again.”

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