Louis Longridge has called upon his Hamilton teammates to find their killer instinct after they blew a lead to lose to Kilmarnock on Saturday.

The left winger had given Accies a deserved lead in the first-half of the game, but they failed to make the most of their dominance as they squandered a series of chances.

They were to pay for their wastefulness as Kilmarnock hit two goals in four second-half minutes to round off a miserable week for Martin Canning’s men.

Longridge insists that the Hamilton players know they have to improve at both end of the pitch.

“I think we dominated large parts of the game,” Longridge said. “We felt comfortable in the game and it’s a wee reality check for us when we’ve had that many chances, not taken them and they’ve taken theirs to go down the road as victors on the day.

“The manager spoke to us all at the end there and said it’s alright being comfortable in the game, controlling possession and creating chances, you have to be clinical at this level.

“You have to be clinical in defence as well, because when we didn’t take our chances and conceded the first goal we were a bit shaken up.

“It’s times like that we have to regroup, because we were comfortable and I knew we could get back into the game, so it was a bit of a shock to us to lose the second.

“Now we have to put it to bed and focus on Dundee on Friday.

“The goals could have been prevented today and that’s the disappointing thing.

“Just before we lost the first goal, if we had taken one of the chances we had then we wouldn’t be here speaking about it though, we would have been comfortable winners.

“The performance was there today. We lost to Morton during the week, but everybody watching that game would know that we were poor and were deserved losers on the night.

“Today was different, we actually performed well, felt comfortable and were creating chances.

“When you’re creating chances it’s about taking them at this level – as they have shown us. They didn’t create many but they’ve won the game and got all three points.”

For the second time this week, Hamilton have compounded the loss of a goal by losing a second within minutes.

Longridge was puzzled as to why that has happened, with Martin Canning making his men fully aware of the need to regroup after conceding.

“I’m not sure what it is,” he said, “but it is a problem because the manager is saying to us that when we do lose a goal we have to keep it tight for five or 10 minutes and grow back into the game.

“It seems at the moment though that when we do lose a goal it is shaking us and we are all over the place and disjointed.

“The manager will look into that I think, because you will lose goals in games, it’s about how you react to it. Obviously today and during the week we haven’t reacted well or in the way we should.

“I’m sure that’s something that will get sorted in the near future.”