Sam Woods says Hamilton's performance against Celtic is the minimum required between now and the end of the season.
Hamilton head into a crunch clash with St Mirren at the Simple Digital Arena in Paisley tonight (Wednesday) and Woods is under no illusions about the scale of the task in front of them.
A win for Brian Rice's side will bring them level on points with Sants, though the Buddies have a better goal-difference, while victory for Jim Goodwin's men puts them six clear.
Woods felt that the 4-1 defeat by champions Celtic on Sunday was harsh on Accies, and that they performed well for large periods of the match.
He said: "It was very harsh, the boys worked their socks off for 75, 80 minutes, and then it was just a cruel, cruel goal.
"Once that goal went in the heads dropped, and it's hard from there, but we can be proud of that performance.
"That's the minimum performance now, we have to take that performance into the St Mirren game, and I'm sure we will do OK.
"We're not going to be judged in games against the likes of Celtic, but we are going to be in game against St Mirren and teams like that.
"St Mirren are a team that are going to be around us in the league, it's a big game and the preparation started immediately after the Celtic game.
"We can take a lot of positives from the performance against Celtic into Wednesday and the tougher games. The games are coming thick and fast, but February is always like that."
