Celtic 8-1 Hamilton: Accies out to end five weeks of hurt

Hamilton have won once in their last 12 games, a run that included their loss to Celtic

Martin Canning says that the 8-1 defeat by Celtic last month "hurt" and his Hamilton Accies players are ready to "rectify" their performance on Friday.

The player-manager insists that they are relishing facing up to Celtic again when the reigning champions visit New Douglas Park.

"Nobody's dreading it," Canning said; "We're looking forward to it.

"When you've played in a game like that, you want to get back out there and put it right."

Canning admits that his players did not perform well in Glasgow and paid the price for that but also stressed that the heavy defeat is now behind them.

"You want to show that you're better than you were in the previous game," he said.

"I'm pretty sure the boys are looking forward to the game and going out to do that.

"There will be no extra pressure put on them from me to say, 'listen, we need to go and make up for that game'.

Martin Canning is eyeing better times with Hamilton against Celtic

"I would assume the pressure will come from themselves and knowing they're better than they were that night."

Accies have only won once in their last 12 outings, although that 1-0 win away to fellow relegation candidates Kilmarnock came after their trouncing in Glasgow.

"We know that on the night we didn't compete well enough," said Canning.

"We covered the miles, we ran the yards, but we didn't make it hard enough for Celtic. That's something we need to do tomorrow night.

"If you let Celtic get up into their stride then you're running the risk of something like that happening.

"That's something we need to make sure we're well aware of and we compete better than we did.

Although Kilmarnock remain in second bottom spot, they are only a point behind Accies and Motherwell, but Canning is not ready to change his philosophy.

"We will do what we always do and set out to try to win the game," he added.

"Against a team of Celtic's quality, you're maybe having to do more defending than you do against other teams, but we've got to get the balance right."