ALEX NEIL insists he won't be too hard on his Hamilton stars despite seeing their winless run extended to four games in the 4-2 defeat to Inverness.

Accies have crashed to Aberdeen and Dundee and drawn with Partick Thistle in recent weeks and slipped to another Premiership loss in the Highlands on Saturday. A Tony Andreu double was not enough for the visitors as John Hughes' side went top of the table for 24 hours before Celtic's win over Aberdeen and Neil's side dropped down the standings.

The Hamilton boss said: "We know how Inverness play and we try to play in a similar style, in terms of getting the ball down and trying to control possession.

"We tried to enforce our game on them and I felt they did the same. It was a really good open game, with good quality from both teams. The only disappointment for me was the goals we conceded were really poor.

"I have a lot of young players and sometimes they have to make mistakes to make themselves better.

"We have had a great start and that is why I won't be too harsh on the players. The effort and quality shown so far has been terrific."

Accies' wait for another win may have gone on as Caley claimed all three points on Saturday, but there is no need for Neil or his players to panic as they continue to fly high in the standings.

It has been a remarkable few months for the Lanarkshire outfit and Neil's belief in their methods hasn't been dented as they look to emerge from their mini-slump.

He said: "We've got huge confidence and genuinely believe we can give anybody a game. But if you don't defend well enough at times, you give yourself a mountain to climb.

"Even at 4-2 we still had good chances and went forwards. That will be the philosophy at Hamilton.

"We are not going to sit behind the ball and be hard to beat because young players don't learn from that.

"We won't change. The way we have played is what has got us here. The fact of not winning the last three league games, albeit we are disappointed, has not been too bad performance-wise."