Under-fire referee Willie Collum is so accustomed to taking flak that the brutal assessment of his abilities delivered by Hearts manager Robbie Neilson following his side’s defeat at Hamilton would probably have rolled off his back like the proverbial water from a duck.

Neilson’s consternation centred on Collum’s decision to dismiss Hearts defender Callum Paterson, a red-card which has subsequently been reduced to yellow, with Neilson admitting to possessing a dossier on every referee in Scotland and preparing his players for Collum’s officiating by training with ten men in the build-up to the game.

It is unlikely that Collum got to this stage in the refereeing game without a thickness of skin akin to rhinoceros hide, but Hamilton manager Martin Canning has stepped in to defend the official, and he refuted any suggestion that he would hold a personal vendetta against any team.

“It’s not something we’ve ever discussed in the time I’ve been at the club,” Canning said.

“We’ve never discussed ‘this referee is taking the game so we’ll have to do this or that’ - never.

“We just turn up and play the game and the referee will do what he’s going to do.

“He’ll make decisions as he sees them and I don’t think for one second that any referee in Scotland turns up to a game thinking ‘that’s Hearts or that’s Hamilton or that’s Celtic, I’m going to give this or that against them.’

“They might make a bad decision, but I don’t think it’s through anything other than a mistake.

“When you watched [Paterson’s tackle] at real speed you can see why the referee sent him off. When you see it back though you can see why it’s been rescinded, so you can see both sides of it and it was a difficult one for the referee on the day.

“Generally I like [Collum], I think he’s pretty good.

“As a player in a game he speaks to you well and tries to explain what he’s doing.

“I think it’s such a difficult job, because one team will think you’ve done well, and the other team will think you’ve had a nightmare.

“Very rarely do both teams agree that you’ve done well or done poorly because one team usually benefits and the other team doesn’t.

“It’s a difficult job and I’m sure that every one of them go out to do their job the best they can and go out to do it with honesty.

“The same as players, they’ll make mistakes, and they’re heavily scrutinised for it.

“I’m pretty sure he’s not looking for headlines, I don’t know him personally to comment on that, it just so happens that the decisions he makes seem to cause headlines.”

The storm caused by Neilson after the game detracted somewhat from an excellent Hamilton performance.

Known for playing neat and tidy passing football, Accies showed another side to their game with a steeliness and physical edge that prevented Hearts from bulldozing their way to three points.

Canning thinks that they will again have to rely on that strength to come away from Saturday’s game at McDiarmid Park with a positive result.

“We’ve brought in a few bigger lads and I don’t think many teams will bully us, that’s for sure,” Canning said.

“That comes down to a hunger to work as well. You look at guys like Ali Crawford who physically in stature aren’t the biggest, but very rarely do they get bullied.

“They fight their corner the best they can, even the likes of Gills [Grant Gillespie] or Dougie [Imrie] who aren’t big in stature but work their socks off.

“As a manager it’s something you want in your team, making sure that no one thinks they can bully us to win a match.

“Going away to St Johnstone is a difficult game. They’re a big strong side, but with the momentum we have as well as the quality coupled with the strength we now have, hopefully that will stand us in good stead.”