MARCO Paixao notched up his second goal of the season for Hamilton and then claimed he was finally getting to grips with Scottish football.
The Portuguese striker netted the opener for Accies after just three minutes of their league clash at St Mirren, before Martin Canning sealed the 2-0 victory.
It was a far cry from last week when Paixao was replaced after just 39 minutes as Ha
milton slumped to defeat against Celtic. But, after a morale-boosting chat with twin brother Flavio, who also plays for Accies, he was philosophical about his brief encounter with the SPL leaders.
"Football is like that," he said. "Sometimes you are in good shape and sometimes not so good shape. But you always have to prove that you are a good player and that you are here to win. I'm a winner and I'm here to make my name in the SPL.
"For a player, when you play a game you always want to play for the 90 minutes. It was the first time I had played against Celtic and the first half was very hard. But I talked to my brother and I become a strong player and a strong person again.
"If I'm strong in my head, everything is good and we saw on Saturday that my performance was good. I came from another country, with a different style of football, and I had to adapt to being here.
"Now, I think that's happening. Players on top have good days and bad days and Saturday was a brilliant day for me."
The victory was Hamilton's second of the season and allowed them to move four points clear of bottom team Falkirk.
"It's important to try to win every game," said Paixao. "If you do that, you will climb the table. We are thinking of the present, not the future.
"We lost against Celtic and it was great to start with an early goal in this game. It was important to get the goal because we were able to relax and play much better.
"The early goal was crucial because it was fantastic for our confidence. In the final minutes we passed the ball about well and the crowd was incredible.
"They enjoyed our performance and that's what we want for the team."
Saints had put together a decent spell which saw them net 11 goals in their last four matches ahead of the visit of Billy Reid's men. But injuries were an issue for the Paisley side, who named just six players on the bench.
"It's a problem," said manager Gus MacPherson. "We've got a small squad but we've just got to deal with it.
"When you get injuries, you run out of options and that's the difficult thing. The players who were there were the players who were fit, there were no other players."
