Accies strike late to prevent

THISTLE squandered the chance to leapfrog their visitors as a late Eamonn Brophy strike ensured a share of the spoils after an entertaining Firhill clash.

The Jags had fought back from Massimo Donati’s opener to lead through goals from Ryan Edwards and Liam Lindsay.

But they were unable to hang on and manager Alan Archibald cut a frustrated figure as he said: “These games matter – a six pointer and we are the home team.”

He was particularly disappointed at the nature of Hamilton’s equaliser, commenting: “It didn’t come from sustained pressure. A ball through was not dealt with by our centre-halfs – it was poor.”

With both sides needing a win, it was the Accies who started with more focus, putting the home goal under great pressure in the opening five minutes.

Set up by Dougie Imrie from the left, Rakish Bingham shot narrowly past before a Grant Gillespie header drifted just wide.

Thistle couldn’t get going at this stage and it was no surprise when Hamilton took the lead. An excellent header by Alex D’Acol brought a fine save from home keeper Ryan Scully. From the subsequent Ally Crawford corner, Donati rose to head powerfully home.

This brought a Jags reaction with visiting keeper Gary Woods called into action for the first time to deal with an effort from Kris Doolan.

In 21 minutes they bagged the equaliser. A quickly taken free kick sent Chris Erskine to the right by-line. He whipped the ball across for the alert Edwards to side-foot home.

As half-time approached Thistle took the lead with a good goal from a corner. The ball went from right to left