Hamilton utility man Grant Gillespie has urged his teammates to keep the faith after they blew a winning position for the ninth time this season in the draw with Partick Thistle on Saturday.

Despite that remarkable and unwanted record, Gillespie believes that there isn’t a lot wrong with the way that Hamilton are playing.

And if they keep following manager Martin Canning’s instructions to the letter, he sees no reason why results shouldn’t start to come for Accies in the near future.

“It’s frustrating”, Gillespie said after the match. “Obviously it’s happened on numerous occasions this season, but again we didn’t feel that Partick Thistle were any better than us.

“The frustration again is that we didn’t see the game out. We’ve taken the lead again and we haven’t managed to hold onto it, and that’s where the frustration lies.

“It’s something that we’ve got to address and hopefully we can put it right. The fact that the league is so tight just adds to that frustration.

“There’s possibly a wee bit of anxiety creeps in when it’s still one-nil. We know that anything can happen in football, so we have to stay strong-minded, keep playing and keep doing the right things and it will start to turn for us.

“We’re not playing that badly that we need to worry about anything, although we’re conceding winning positions.

“If we keep playing the way we’re playing then the results will start to come for us. It’s just about being persistent and keeping belief in what we’re doing here. I don’t think there’s much wrong, it’s just about keeping the faith.”

Despite the disappointment of the draw against Thistle, Accies found themselves moving up to eighth in the tightly-bunched bottom-half of the table.

Gillespie has warned though that they can’t afford to rest on their laurels.

“I’d imagine that if you had offered us this place in the table just now we’d be happy with it, but it’s kind of a false position because the table is so tight,” he said.

“With one win you’re up but with one defeat you’re right back down, so it’s not really a strong position.”

“It’s still a good position though, we’re not bottom of the league or in the play-off position, so it’s positive even though we thing we could be doing better.

“I can’t see many teams breaking away, maybe one if someone can put a good run together.

“Obviously we now have a hard run of fixtures coming up over the Christmas period, but we feel that we are more than capable of matching anybody in the league.