HAMILTON gaffer Billy Reid has highlighted Accies' trip to Dunfermline as the perfect opportunity to damage the Pars' hopes of catching his side.

Hamilton lead the First Division from Dundee by four points while pre-season title favourites Dunfermline are a distant 10 points off the pace.

And a fired-up Reid said: "The visit to Fife is a great game for us. We know they will have a big support out and be viewing this as the ideal chance to haul us back. But with 10 points between the two sides, a win for us would take that gap to 13 and that would be a big ask for them to close.

"However, they have so many top drawer players in their squad that we know it will be very tough at East End. Certainly it is vital that we don't concede anything early on - the longer we keep things level, the more chance we have of turning the home support."

Meanwhile, Morton will travel to Clyde with Ton gaffer Jim McInally pinpointing the need to tighten up defensively as the key area for improvement over the second quarter of the campaign.

Macca said: "Although we are pleased to be sitting in the top half of the table after the first part of the season, the main area for improvement has got to be in our defending as a team. I feel that some of the goals we conceded in the early weeks were avoidable and ultimately costly.

"But we know that we will face a battle at Clyde and our attitude will need to be spot on if we want to get a positive result tomorrow."

The Ton will travel without crocked centre-back Davie McGregor and goalkeeper Lee Robinson.

Clyde gaffer Colin Hendry is hoping for big things from striker Gary Arbuckle after he broke his duck in the Bully Wee's victory against Stirling last time out.

Hendry said: "I was really pleased for Gary and he probably needed it for himself.

"If things come together for him we could have quite a striker at Clyde and I hope that performance kick starts his season."