Hamilton boss Brian Rice says his players are ready to fight their way out of trouble after slumping to a 5-3 defeat at home to St Johnstone.
Calum Davidson's side were 3-0 up and seemingly cruising, but sub Ronan Hughes and Marios Ogkmpoe strikes gave Saints a nervy few moments before Craig Conway settled the nerves with a 69th-minute goal, then added a late fifth.
Former Accies hero Stevie May got Saints off to a flyer in the first minute, David Wotherspoon netted 13 minutes later, and May struck again to put Saintees on easy-street.
However, Accies fought back and Hughes smashed home his first goal of the season in 40 minutes, with Ogkmpoe looping a header past Zander Clark to give Hamilton hope.
Clark had to be alert to prevent Kyle Munro from levelling but Saints hit on the break and Conway rifled into the net.
Still Accies refused to give up and when Ross Callahan's powerful strike cannoned off the bar, Hughes was on hand to score the rebound.
But just minutes later Conway sent a stunning free kick past Ryan Fulton and the three points headed to Perth.
A disappointed boss Brian Rice told AcciesTV: "I've said now that they sink or swim and I didn't see too many people jumping out the boat.
"They want to be in there fighting, they want to be in there giving it their all, and they were still going strong to get it back, so credit to my boys for doing that - but I'm very disappointed not to take something after scoring three goals at home.
"To score three goals is fantastic at home, but we've lost five goals today.
"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and it was a poor, poor start for some reason - things we've spoken about, things we worked on, but all credit to the players in there.
"There was fight there, I don't think anybody can say we deserved to be 3-0 down. We lost a couple of poor goals but we got two back before half-time and we genuinely believed that if we got the next goal we could take something out of the game. We didn't, but we kept going."
Hamilton move on to a tussle with Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Tuesday night and Rice said there were concerns as talisman David Templeton limped off injured, but he pointed out that was how Ronan Hughes got his chance.
"David took a sore one and there was an opportunity to get Ronan onto the pitch, because we haven't had an opportunity to do that since he got injured at Parkhead," said Rice. "He got two goals so that will be a massive boost to the young man.
"We're all disappointed; everybody associated with Hamilton is disappointed - I'm bitterly disappointed - but we go again on Tuesday night.
"You don't give up, Hamilton's never been known for giving up and you saw that today, so we go again on Tuesday night."
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