Hamilton manager Martin Canning issued an apology to the club’s supporters and admitted they were justified in directing their anger at him following the 4-0 hammering at St Johnstone.

Canning conceded his side were “second best” in every department from start to finish at McDiarmid Park as they fell to a fifth defeat from their last seven games.

Murray Davidson’s opener and what appeared to be an own goal from Ziggy Gordon gave the Lanarkshire side a mountain to climb at half-time, and further goals from Matt Kennedy and David Wotherspoon earned Saints a richly-deserved fifth successive victory.

And Canning was forthright in his assessment of a dismal display from Accies.

He said: “We’re bitterly disappointed. We were second best all over the park right from the first whistle.

“We don’t give ourselves an opportunity to even get into the game and it’s disappointing. Yes, St Johnstone are going well but we didn’t make it difficult for them at all.

“We’ve turned up and rolled over and we’ve lost the game.”

Asked what he would say to the fans who booed at full-time, Canning said: “Sorry. And they’re well within their rights to have a go.

“If I was a punter and I was watching that I would be saying the same. I wouldn’t be happy.

“I said that to the players after it. I can take it when it’s justified and that was justified.

“It’s part of my job as a manager. I put them on the pitch, I pick the guys to go and play and if they don’t perform I’m the target that’s going to get the abuse.

“That’s what happens.

“I’ll always put them first, I’ll always work as hard as I can for the players and do as much as I can to deflect that and take that.

“But what I need to get is that work-rate on the pitch, which we generally do get.

“But that wasn’t the case and I’ll need to make sure it’s up big time for (the next game against) Celtic.”

St Johnstone moved up to fourth in the table with a fifth consecutive win and a fifth consecutive clean sheet for goalkeeper Zander Clark.

It has been a remarkable turnaround since they were thrashed 6-0 by Celtic just a month ago.

But assistant manager Alex Cleland is adamant they will not rest on their laurels as they seek further improvements in the coming weeks.

He said: “We’re very pleased. We’ve picked up 15 points since being beaten by Celtic so it’s a really good run we’ve been on.

“We’ve just told the boys to keep trying to be better than the game before, and I think we did that today.

“The next challenge is Kilmarnock, that’s the next one we look forward to.”