Dean Lyness insists Hamilton players are shutting out fan protests and throwing their support behind John Rankin.
The Accies boss was the subject of abuse and a banner demanding his sacking BEFORE kick-off in Perth, while the visiting team’s board also copped flak from the visiting fans.
Hamilton have lost four straight league games, scoring just once, and sit ninth in the Championship.
But they did a fine job frustrating St Johnstone until the 87th minute. Keeper Lyness produced fine stops to keep the second-tier side in contention for a shock.
He said: “As a player, you’re just out there to do your job. Fans come and can voice their opinions as they like.
“For me, personally, I’m there to keep the ball out the net and that’s my primary focus. Unfortunately, we could only do that for 87 minutes and just fell short.
“The players are 100 per cent behind the manager. I think you saw that last week against Ayr, too, where we were really in the game with 10 minutes to go but conceded twice late on.
“That’s something we’ve got to address. We’ve got to play for 90 minutes. I think we probably earned a chance at extra-time. To put so much into it and not get there was a real disappointment.
“We were a bit gutted and deflated but that’s football – when things go against you, they really go against you.”#
Accies now face five games in 15 days that will have a huge bearing on their survival hopes. A run of three road matches begins this Saturday at Queen’s Park.
Lyness said: “There’s plenty we can take out of this game and into the league. We limited St Johnstone to entries into our box. Apart from a few cross balls that (Makenzie) Kirk gets on the end of, defensively I felt we were organised.
“That takes a lot of effort and commitment from the boys, to keep your shape and discipline.
“I’m confident it will turn. The bare minimum and what we demand from each other is that we take the same intensity into Queen’s Park.”