Inverness 2-1 Hamilton: Martin Canning angry after "stonewall penalty" denied

Hamilton manager Martin Canning says he is "fed up" of watching his team suffer from what he argues is a series of refereeing errors.

Accies were denied a penalty in Saturday's damaging defeat by fellow Premiership strugglers Inverness.

Ali Crawford was felled by Caley Thistle goalkeeper Ryan Esson, but referee Andrew Dallas remained unmoved.

"Every single week it seems decisions go against us," an exasperated Canning told BBC Scotland after the 2-1 defeat.

"Whether it's red cards that get overturned, decisions at Ibrox, penalties - last season against St Johnstone, the same referee (Dallas) phoned me through the week to apologise for not giving us penalties, and does it again today.

"It's a stonewall penalty and yet again we don't get the decision. I'm a big supporter of referees, I always have been, I know they've got a difficult job to do, but I can't keep on doing it.

"It's getting to the point now that I'm getting fed up with it, to be honest. Don't get me wrong, first-half we didn't help ourselves, we gave away sloppy goals, but they're able to see a penalty that by all accounts is a penalty, and yet second-half they're not able to see it, and it just gets frustrating."

Canning was irked by several contentious calls in Accies 6-0 Scottish Cup thrashing by Rangers in March, and the club successfully appealed against the red card Giannis Skondras received against Ross County last month.

Ali Crawford went down in the Inverness box under Ryan Esson's challenge, but no penalty was awarded

In February, the Accies boss himself told BBC Scotland he felt the standard of Scottish officiating was improving, but Saturday's match appeared to push Canning to the end of his tether.

"It's another big decision that's gone against us," he added. "You hope over the course of a season they even themselves out, but they just seem to be continuing to go against us.

"I don't doubt for one second the referees try and make decisions based on what they're seeing; it just seems they keep not seeing things for us and seeing things against us."

Meanwhile, Inverness remain four points adrift at the foot of the table with three matches remaining, and still face an uphill battle to preserve their top-flight status.

Manager Richie Foran, however, believes the victory - their first since February - will give his players a major lift for the season's climax.

"There's quality there in abundance," he said. "Yes, we probably lacked that wee bit of composure in front of goal, but to create so many chances gives us great belief going into the next three games.

"More importantly, the win gives the players huge confidence. We knew there were goals in our team, but the way we defended, I thought the back four were magnificent, particularly Gary Warren and Louis Laing, they won every header.

"It's only going to get harder for us now. Kilmarnock, watching that game today will give us a lot more respect next week when we go to play them."