Martin Canning found himself in the strange position last week of getting absolutely no sleep but still being forced to endure a recurring nightmare.

The 8-1 defeat at Celtic had brought with it a bout of insomnia for the Hamilton manager, as he struggled to piece together what exactly was going wrong with his side.

A battling goalless draw at home with Hearts on Sunday salved his tortured mind a little, but he’s sure to be sleeping like a log come Saturday night should his side defeat relegation rivals Kilmarnock.

If Killie win though, Hamilton will find themselves in the relegation play-off position, a fate that seemed so unlikely just two months ago when they were riding high in the top six.

“I slept a little better on Sunday night because it was a much better performance than we put in at Parkhead in midweek,” said Canning.

“Obviously, it would have been better if we’d won the game but it can often be difficult when you play against 10 men, especially when they put so many players behind the ball – as Hearts did.

“From our point of view, though, it was a point gained – I’d have settled for a draw beforehand.

“The most important thing was that we got a reaction – as we did at St Johnstone after the defeat at Annan.

“I’ve no doubt that the character and the fight is there among this squad – all we need to do is put a run together.

“The Kilmarnock match is a big game and it’s a chance for us to open up a wee gap on them. We’ve worked hard all week to concentrate on getting the win.

“From now on in, every game is a cup final for us. I know that’s a cliché but that’s the case.

“We’d like to have won more games but as long as we continue to fight and perform then we have the quality here to do that.

“If we’re being honest, we’re currently in the position we probably expected to be in at the start of the season – among a group of five or six clubs who are fighting to earn enough points to stay in the division.

“That’s exactly where we are. The start we had gave us the platform to stay up but we always knew that there would be a sticky patch.

“We need to work hard to turn this round and we will.”

Kilmarnock’s Jekyll and Hyde nature is something that has been noted by Canning, with their habit of losing heavily after conceding early something he hopes to prey on.

Killie have lost four or more goals on five occasions this season, and in all but one of those games they conceded within the opening ten minutes.

Canning said: “That’s something we’ll analyse. We’ll look back at their game at Tannadice but starting on the front foot is something we always try to do anyway.

“We’ll be looking to impose ourselves on proceedings – our intention is to leave there with all three points.

“In our situation you need to be ruthless, especially when you’re playing the teams around you in the table.

“When you go a goal up you need to go for the throat and that’s something we’ll be talking about. Of course, they’ll be thinking exactly the same way and it won’t be an easy game for us.

“But we beat them 2-1 at Rugby Park earlier in the season so we’ve proved already that we can go there and win. But we’ll need everyone to be at it.”