Now Canning has urged his players to give their all and battle for the three points as they strive to bring the curtain down on 2018 with a priceless win.

The Accies boss said: "This derby means everything to everyone at both clubs. I can assure you on Saturday this will be on the only derby on their minds.

"We need to make sure we're ready for it, and we are. We'll be as best prepared as we can possibly be and we know it's the final push before the break and we'll be giving everything to get the three points.

"It's about attitude and will to win but you need quality as well. In the last game at Motherwell it was very tight but a bit of quality from Steven Boyd, whose finish was top drawer, won us the game.

"That's usually what happens in a derby game, they are tight, hard fought and whatever team can produce that bit of quality has the best chance of winning the game.

"But first and foremost your attitude has to be spot on because if that's not right then it doesn't matter what quality you've got.

"It'll be great for us to end the year on a high. It would put us a point behind Motherwell and keeps it tight. It's a huge game and the importance of it can't be understated. It's a huge game for us and we know that. We'll be as ready as we can be."

Canning was disappointed to lose 2-0 on Boxing Day at Hearts but pleased his inexperienced line-up never let their heads drop.

And he believes they will benefit from the experience.

He said: "Against Hearts we had a young team in terms of experience at this level and I thought that showed in the game. Hearts were cuter than us, they were good on the day and we didn't play to our potential but our young players will have learned from playing against the quality they were up against.

"We give the kids an opportunity and they will make mistakes but the attitude was good on Wednesday.

"They were two down at half-time at Tynecastle and it could have got worse but we kept working hard and for a spell in the second half we were in the game and had a couple of opportunities but when Shaun Want was sent off it became a big ask.

"But they stuck to it with 10 men and while it wasn't a good result their heads didn't drop and they kept working hard and we competed well."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association Sport staff');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'e71f7b4f-0d85-42a1-8b76-43aaff89d126');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Canning keen to keep focus on Lanarkshire derby'});