HAMILTON star James McArthur couldn't hide his dismay as Accies slumped back to the foot of the SPL, but the Scotland under-21 international isn't pressing any panic buttons.

Hamilton were somewhat unlucky to find themselves on the back of a 7-1 annihilation at Ibrox on Saturday afternoon and McCarthur's opening goal, which came just 110 seconds into the match, seemed like a long way off by the time the final whistle blew.

Billy Reid's side have to face a journey to Easter Road next weekend to take on a buoyant Hibs side and McArthur knows they can ill-afford to dwell on the loss too much.

"We have to put the result behind us and just look forward to Saturday's game.

"We know that we do need to start picking up points elsewhere and we need them to stick by us just now as we try to make sure we stay in the SPL."

And while McArthur's goal counted for nothing on Saturday, he is hoping that he'll weigh in with a few more significant strikes this season.

"It was nice to score the goal on Saturday, but it obviously means nothing because of the way we on and lost the game," he said.

Reid admitted that the sending-off of Martin Canning completely changed the course of the game.

He sighed: "It's hard enough against Rangers and Celtic with 11 players and it was difficult.

"Rangers were hungry and I thought their front two were brilliant.

"Our back three struggled against Miller and Boyd and that had a big bearing on the game."

Canning was also dismissed after conceding a penalty against Celtic a few weeks ago and Reid said: "That's two red cards against the Old Firm in four games.

"He's frustrated and he's obviously gutted because he knows it has had a huge influence on the game.

"I don't think there was a lot in it but it was a penalty and the rules are that the last man has to go. He's got to learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again."