Airdrieonians manager John Rankin admitted his side were 'bullied' in a 4-0 derby defeat to Hamilton Accies, saying it was 'men against boys' as his return to New Douglas Park ended in a thumping loss.
The former Accies gaffer returned to his old stomping ground in the hope of picking up a first league win of the season, but his former assistant Darian MacKinnon and his side were in no mood to take it easy as they inflicted a thumping 4-0 defeat on the Diamonds.
Accies cruise to summit
Despite major financial issues last season and big debts at the club, Accies have spent big in the summer and they cruised to a comfortable win to lead the way at the summit on nine points, 10 goals scored and 0 conceded.
Kyle MacDonald hit a hat-trick while Kai Smutek also got in on the act to leave Rankin to conclude his side were way below the levels required.
Rankin: 'We were bullied'
He told the club media: "It is far too convincing for my liking and it looked like men against boys at times - and we need to grow up very quickly.
"I think when you look at the start of both halves it is quite clear [what went wrong]. We were bullied for the first 10-15 minutes in the game and from then we never got a foothold in the game. I think Hamilton have got a really experienced side.
"We didn't pick up the first ball, the second ball or the third ball - that's the disappointing part.
"We knew it was a derby and they fought harder than us.
"You look at the start of the second half, the boys were ready to go and then you look at the goal we concede... The timing of it I think is 48 minutes so we don't give ourselves a chance and after that it is an uphill battle.
"They came off it, in terms of letting us have the ball in our own half. We were making passes but going nowhere with it and then they pick our pockets and hurt us.
"We have got to be better than that. We need to demand the ball. When it goes 1-0 and 2-0, we are not wanting the ball as much as we normally are and when we did want it, we wanted it in the wrong areas. So we need to be so much better."
Turning point
Rankin insisted the turning point in the contest came in the second half when Accies keeper Dean Lyness denied new Diamonds signing Callum Burnside a debut goal.
He added: "At 2-0 Dean Lyness makes an unbelievable save from Callum Burnside and if that goes in and we go 2-1, the whole dynamic in the stadium changes.
"But that save, if you look at it, our body language changes and so does theirs. Our shoulders drop, the belief begind to fade and you look at them [Accies] and once that save is made they get more belief and go on to win the game."
Airdrie have yet to pick up a league win and now host one of the title favourites, Ross County, at New Broomfield next weekend.
