Hamilton boss Brian Rice aims to end the culture of inconsistency revealed by a dressing-room inquest following their chastening defeat at Kilmarnock.

After a morale-boosting 1-0 win over Hearts  in their previous outing, Accies were thrashed 5-0 at Rugby Park on Saturday.

The result left them just four points ahead of second-bottom St Mirren and six ahead of Dundee with seven Ladbrokes Premiership fixtures remaining.

Ahead of Wednesday's trip to Livingston,  Rice, who took over from Martin Canning in January, described his side's performance in Ayrshire as "hopeless" and sought to uncover the reasons for it.

Rice said: "I never seen it coming.

"We had a wee chat in the dressing room after the match and I asked them, 'what happens here at this club where you win one and then don't perform the next game?'

"One of the experienced players said, 'that's what happens here at Hamilton, we have always been like that.'

"I took it on board and went home and thought about it and we spoke about it and I said, 'Why? Why does it happen and why is there an acceptance of that happening?'

"It is a bad habit and we need to get out of that habit.

"We don't want to accept that 'good then bad then good then bad', we need to create our own standards and we fell way below that on Saturday.

"I am not going to disguise it, we were hopeless and we need to bounce back on Wednesday night."

Rice knows that Hamilton are battling for survival as they face a Livingston side who lost 2-1 at home to Hibernian on Friday night.

He said: "We will never be clear until we are mathematically clear.

"Dundee and St Mirren will be in this morning saying, 'let's get going again on Wednesday night, it is a chance to get three points.'

"I think Livingston have been a credit to the manager, the coaches, the fans.

"The fans know exactly what they are getting from their team; effort and commitment from start to finish with good players and good play.

"I keep saying it, it is a three-horse race and we are leading, let's keep at the front."