Martin Canning saw Paul Hartley lose his job as manager of Dundee after his Hamilton side had put them to the sword a couple of weeks ago and felt sympathy for his former colleague.

But the Accies gaffer accepts that such is the dog-eat-dog nature of football these days, particularly in the midst of a relegation battle as tight as the bottom half of the Premiership, that there will be casualties.

He is grateful though that his own board have refused to yield the axe on his own neck, even under some intense pressure this season, and he is determined to repay them for their faith by securing Hamilton’s survival in the division.

“That’s modern-day football,” Canning said. “It seems to be that everyone thinks that’s the fix, get the old guy out and the new guy in and everything will be okay.

“But that’s other clubs and I don’t want to talk too much about it.

“The one thing I’ve always had here, we’ve always had as a staff, is the backing of everybody here to go and work hard.

“We keep our heads down and try to do the job as best we can, work as hard as we can.

“Of course, I want to [reward] that. They’ve been great with us. It’s testament to the club, the way they’ve got a longer-term plan, a vision, as to how they want to stick to.

“Ultimately, of course, it’s about results. You need to make sure you’re winning games and that you’re competing.

“Thankfully, in the last four games we’ve turned it round a bit. We’ve won two and drawn two and we need to keep that going.

“It’s always been very supportive. Even more so in the bad times, they’ve been more supportive. In the good days, that’s when you maybe get a wee word or two.

“I put everything I’ve got into this job, give it everything. Ultimately, though, it is about results.

“We’ve got to do our jobs over the next five games to make sure we stay in this league.”

To that end, the win at Dens Park was the perfect way to go into last week’s break, with the positive mood lasting through into the preparations for Saturday’s home game against Kilmarnock.

“It was a great result for us,” said Canning. “It made sure we could keep the two weeks we were going to be off bubbly and good. There’s been a good atmosphere about the place as you’d imagine.

“But we need to maintain it. It’s such a crucial point of the season and every game right now is bigger than the previous one.

“Now we’ve got another huge game on Saturday and we’ve got to try and take the three points.”

Canning has challenged his players to show the same levels of application post-split as they did in the lead up to the league breaking in two, with two wins and two draws from their last four games.

“It’s so tight in the bottom half and it’s been like that all season,” he said. “We talked about it before Christmas, that everyone potentially in the bottom six could be involved in a relegation battle.

“Whether it’s Dundee, ourselves, Inverness, Ross County, Kilmarnock, Motherwell as well, there’s so little between the teams. One thing here and there can win or lose you a game.

“The one thing that’s especially key right now is attitude — that and hard work.

“I gave the players Saturday and Sunday off and told them to come back refreshed and ready to hit it hard again on Monday.

“To be fair, they’ve done that — and now we need to make sure we take the good week into Saturday.”