Michael Devlin says the leaders in the Hamilton Accies dressing room have often been missing when they are needed most this season.

His manager Martin Canning said there was a lack of character shown in the 4-0 defeat to Kilmarnock on Saturday especially after such an inspirational win over Dundee United the previous weekend.

The result has opened up the fight to avoid the Premiership play-off spot as Accies now lead Kilmarnock by just four points with three games remaining.

Devlin agrees with his boss' comments, saying he knows the dressing room has strong characters but they have been failing to be heard lately.

"Given the start we made to the game, that's when you need strong characters in the team to stand up and be counted and drag the team through a sticky patch," Devlin said.

"Going 1-0 down is fine, that happens in the game, but what you can't do is go on and concede two, three or four goals and give yourself no chance.

"The disappointing thing is the way we get beat, it tends to be 3-0 or 4-0. I'm not sure why it is, maybe it is a lack of character at times.

"You need leaders on the park to stop things like that from happening and unfortunately for us that's not been the case this season.

"I think we have a really good changing room and we do have leaders but at difficult times throughout a game you need people to step up. Maybe at times this season, for whatever reason, that's not happened."