Billy Reid hopes giving his shellshocked Hamilton players time off this week will help avoid another SPL humiliation on Saturday.The SPL new-boys travel to Hibernian on the back of their biggest hiding of the season, last weekend's 7-1 thumping at Rangers.

Reid decided the carrot would be more effective than the stick in rebuilding his side's confidence, so he gave them a couple of days to lick their wounds before beginning preparations for the trip to Easter Road.

But the Accies boss admits the scars from Saturday's Ibrox thrashing took a little longer to heal.

"We usually come in on the Sunday but I just felt it was right to give them a couple of days off to let them clear their heads," Reid said.

"They were pretty despondent on Tuesday; they're usually a lively bunch.

"They're a wee bit down; you should be down if you get beaten 7-1. So we'll be looking for answers as to why it happened and we'll try to take the positives out of the game.

"You might think there's not many positives getting beaten 7-1 but we went to Ibrox, we've scored, we created a few chances - sometimes teams don't do that.

"It was a heavy defeat and we have to go to Easter Road and make sure we stand up and are counted and I certainly feel we'll do that."

Hamilton actually took a shock lead at Ibrox and were only 2-1 down at half-time.

But the 52nd-minute sending-off of defender Martin Canning - his second dismissal in three games for conceding a penalty - opened the floodgates.

"The sending-off had a big bearing on the seven goals," said Reid, whose side have picked up a number of soft red cards this season.

The Accies boss admits his players need to be a bit smarter in one-on-one scenarios, adding: "Martin found himself in a couple of similar situations.

"You call it unfortunate but we have to be a bit cuter, making sure we don't put ourselves in the situation where we can get a red card."

As well as staying out of the referee's notebook tomorrow, Reid's men will be braced for a shoot-on-sight approach from Hibs, which left Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc red faced last weekend.

Boruc was deceived by a 45-yard "squiggler" from John Rankin in the champions' 2-0 defeat, with the goalscorer claiming he practises the shot in training.

But Reid will not tolerate a similar howler from Accies keeper Tomas Cerny.

"I think any manager would be disappointed if their goalkeeper conceded that goal," he said.

Meanwhile, Reid claims he has yet to hold formal discussions with Robbie Winters over the possibility of offering the former Aberdeen and Dundee United striker a contract.

Currently without a club, Winters has been training with Accies this week, although the cold snap has hampered his bid to impress.

Reid said: "Training facilities have been hard to come by because of the weather. We've not managed to get on the grass.

"Robbie's not really up to full spec but he's a talented player.

"We've not really sat down and spoken about things. He's come here for a few days, we'll see how it goes in training and take it from there."

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