Hamilton defender Ziggy Gordon has denied that Accies' league position has taken the pressure off the Lanarkshire side as their slump continues.

Aberdeen left New Douglas Park on the back of a 3-0 win that was going on much more - two goals that should have stood were denied to the Pittodrie side as was a decent penalty shout.

And it means that Accies have not won a game since the opening days of January.

The second-half dismissal of Jesus Garcia Tena added to Accies woe in an afternoon when they were outplayed almost entirely by an Aberdeen side currently enjoying their best run of results for 22 years.

But the purple patch that Hamilton had in the opening months of the season has ensured there is no fear of them being dragged into a relegation dogfight.

They remain in fifth position, but Gordon is adamant that because of that there has been no sub-conscious decision to dismiss the poor run of form from Martin Canning's side.

"We are a team of mostly young boys," said Gordon. "We are all busting a gut in every game because we all think that we could go on and make the move up the ladder a bit.

"So there has certainly been no let up from us. It isn't as if anyone is thinking that we're safe so we don't need to fight too hard. That isn't the case at all.

"We have been desperately unlucky in some of our games.

"I think it's fair to say that we struggled against Aberdeen - but they are a good side.

"You have to remember where they are in the league and to gift them a two-goal lead within the opening six minutes was always going to make life difficult for us.

"We still had our chances but we did struggle."

Nigel Hasselbaink missed the game because his international clearance has still not arrived from Greece while his wife was also due to give birth in Holland.

The striker, though, is expected to feature at some stage next weekend against Celtic.

His pace will be welcomed by manager Martin Canning who saw Jason Scotland miss two good chances in the opening half against Aberdeen.

And Gordon there must be a dramatic improvement if they are to go to Parkhead and get any kind of result,

"We have done it already this season, so why not?" said Gordon. "But you need luck. You need a goal. You need to defend with your life.

"But, as I said, we are a team of players bursting to prove ourselves with every game.

"We want to do the club proud and do ourselves proud and if you can't get excited at the prospect of going and playing against Celtic then you shouldn't be playing."

And the defender has insisted that despite the poor run of form, that the mood in the Accies dressing room remains upbeat.

"This will come again for us, I am sure of it," said the defender. "We are making chances. We just aren't putting them away.

"At the start of the season we were riding our luck a bit - if we had two chances in a game we seemed to have developed the knack of taking them.

"Now if we have six or seven there are none of them going in.

"It's frustrating but we are not despondent. We know that if we keep making the chances and keep trying to play that we will turn the corner.

"It is a blip and it is important to keep trying to do the right thing in games."