Skipper Brian Easton believes Hamilton took a battering on several fronts this season before their seven-year stay in the Premiership effectively ended on Wednesday night.
A 2-1 defeat by Ross County in Dingwall kept Accies bottom of the table, three points behind Kilmarnock and 18 goals worse off with one fixture remaining, at home to second-bottom Killie on Sunday.
Easton acknowledged the consequences of the defeat by the Staggies, who need one point against Motherwell on Sunday to ensure safety.
“It’s devastating,” the 33-year-old defender said. “I think when you look at this season, we’ve had so many things to deal with. Injuries, games being called off due to Covid. It just feels like we’ve been battered.
“Obviously, everyone’s had to deal with the Covid cases. We’ve had a few time when it’s killed us a bit, added to injuries.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it in my career. It just seemed when we had a boy coming back there were two falling out – and important players as well.
“But it wasn’t a case of the heads going down, it was more about being motivated to go again.
“So to still be fighting away, you need to be proud of the boys. They’ve kept fighting no matter what.
“Maybe not everyone will understand the pride I feel, but it’s definitely something I have for my team-mates. I couldn’t have asked any more of them.
“But the thing that I’ve always loved about the boys is they’ve just kept going – there’s never been any complaining.
“They are a great group of honest boys who have worked ever so hard every game. We got that to the very end.
“It’s just so disappointing to not do enough to stay up or to give ourselves an almost impossible task on the last day. It’s just so disappointing.”
Hamilton’s task against Kilmarnock, who drew 3-3 at home to St Mirren on Wednesday night, arguably goes way beyond a football miracle as they need to win by nine goals.
Easton said: “Listen, we’ll go out to try and win the game.
“The County game was a big one, we had to at least match Killie’s result. The fact they drew and we just couldn’t get that goal that would’ve given us the point is tough.
“That would’ve left us needing a win on Sunday to go above Killie. It just adds to that kind of sting. It’s gutting. We were deeply disappointed.
“But we’ll start our preparations again for the Kilmarnock game and look to give everything once more.”
