Raised eyebrows at two successive defeats for Hamilton is testament to how well the Lanarkshire club have performed this season, says player-manager Alex Neil.

After losing at home to Inverness on day one of the Premiership season, the club promoted via the play-offs, had an 11-game unbeaten run taking them top and to the League Cup quarter-finals.

The Lanarkshire side are still top, despite a 2-0 defeat by Dundee at Dens Park last week, and they were knocked out of the cup by Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday.

It is the first time Neil's side has lost back-to-back since last December and, ahead of today's visit of Partick, the midfielder said: "If you look at a club of our size, to go a full year only losing two games in a trot is remarkable, really.

"After the Inverness game, everyone was saying we would be lucky to string two wins together. It is credit to how well the players have done. We are top of the league after 11 games and it really doesn't get much better than this for us."

He added: "Out of 13 or 14 games this season, the Aberdeen game in midweek is the one where we haven't really performed, so that is a good ratio as far as I am concerned.

"What we need to do now is focus on the things that got us where we are, but that is not easy to maintain. Tomorrow we will be looking, first and foremost, to put on a good performance, and the result will take care of itself."

Defender Martin Canning says it is crucial Accies do not let two defeats turn into three.

The 32-year-old said: "You don't want to get on a run of losing games because it is diffiult to change it.

"On a run of games momentum builds and you continue to win: the same thing happens in reverse with defeats. We want to avoid that.

"We didn't get carried away by the good run, and we won't get carried away by two defeats. It is just a case of preparing for Partick Thistle and trying to win that."