Crawford: It’s the same story about us not taking the points

Ali Crawford was delighted to blast in his ninth goal of an impressive season in a 1-1 draw at Inverness on Saturday, but says Hamilton did enough to win the game.

Crawford appeared to catch goalkeeper Owain Fon-williams unaware as he fired a free-kick into the bottom left corner in 16 minutes, after Scott Mcmann had been unceremoniously dumped on the turf by Jake Mulraney.

Ex-manchester United starlet Larnell Cole levelled in 51 minutes with a terrific strike off the underside of the bar to rescue a point for the hosts.

Crawford felt he and his team-mates did well enough, though, and was left disappointed not to take all three points.

He said:“it’s the same story, as I’ve been saying for the last couple of weeks.

“The thing is that we created more chances this week, we probably should have done better – myself included, because I had a couple of chances and should have hit the target.

“We take the point and go back down the road, we have a tough run of games now, so a point is better than nothing.”

On his free-kick strike, Crawford said: “I’d probably say my last one at Ross County was better, I saw the keeper had given me quite a bit of room there, so I gave him the eyes, whipped it in near-post, and thankfully it has gone in, and it’s another goal for my tally this season.

“My goal-scoring is better now. I’m happy with the way I’m playing just now and the goals bring me confidence, so hopefully I can bring that into the next couple of games.”

The game at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium started slowly, and the first moment of note came in 11 minutes when Cole skipped round Gary Woods, but was flagged offside.

Hamilton then scored, and Lonsana Doumbouya went close to equalising, but glanced his header just past the right post from an Iain Vigurs cross.

Accies striker Alex D’acol then controlled a loose ball before flashing a volley narrowly over in 27 minutes, play raged up the other end and Georgios Sarris made a terrific tackle to stop Cole in the box.

There was a moment of controversy in 33 minutes when defender Dan Seaborne appeared to handle a Thistle shot on the line, but Doumbouya was guilty of a foul on Woods as he pushed him back, and he also handled the ball in the build-up.

Thistle had their tails up though and at least three low shots failed to hit the target in a stramash, and five minutes later Crawford’s defending put Greg Tansey off, and Woods was able to make the save.

Crawford tried a free-kick in first-half stoppage time, but it was headed clear and Greg Docherty’s rebound dipped just over.

D’acol had an effort saved before Cole lashed in the equaliser off the underside of the bar in 51 minutes from a Mulraney pass.

Docherty and Crawford sent efforts just wide, and Darian Mackinnon was unlucky to see a looping shot brilliantly pushed over by Fon-williams in 57 minutes.

The keeper then produced a great save to deny Crawford’s free-kick late on.