Hearts’ hard-fought win puts them second
HEARTS 3 Walker (69, 81) Nicholson (90) HAMILTON 1 Crawford (50)
HEARTS head coach Robbie Neilson insists his side have Celtic in their sights after climbing to second in the Premiership with a hardfought victory over Hamilton.
The Tynecastle outfit came from behind to claim all the spoils against Accies after Martin Canning’s team rode their luck before hitting their hosts with a 50th minute sucker punch f r om Ali Crawford.
But Sam Nicolson climbed off the bench to inspire the Edinburgh club to a third win on the spin.
The Scotland Under- 21 internationalist dug out a cross for Jamie Walker to level before winning a controversial penalty under a challenge from Shaun Want.
Walker converted from 12 yards before Nicholson added a third in injury-time.
Hearts are sandwiched between the Old Firm at the top and can even climb to the summit for at least 24 hours if they overcome St Johnstone next weekend.
Neilson said: “To bounce back from going behind is great and those three points get us up to second in the league. We need to try to keep winning games and get up as high as we can.
“We know it’s going to be difficult to stay where we are at the moment but we have to believe we can do it.”
Neilson was thrilled with his players’ response to going behind against the run of play.
He added: “I am delighted with the character. You always know it’s going to be a tough game against Hamilton and we’ve found it really difficult to break them down recently, especially away from home.
“There was a bit of frustration at half- time because we created so many chances but
didn’t score, then we lose a good quality goal to them.”
After managing to get in at half- time without having conceded a goal following wave after wave of attacks from Hearts, Accies stunned Tynecastle in the 50th minute when Crawford opened the scoring. Grant Gillespie sped past Callum Paterson and his cross was volleyed into the net by the Hamilton playmaker from 12 yards.
Hearts were stunned but the introduction of Sam Nicholson turned the game in their favour.
The winger came on for Arnaud Djoum and dug out out a cross in the 69th minute for Walker to bullet a header past Remi Matthews. Nicholson was involved in the controversial penalty after going down under a challenge from Accies debutant Want.
Hamilton vehemently protested against referee Craig Thomson’s decision but Walker kept his cool to score from 12 yards.
Hamilton piled forward in the hope of grabbing an equaliser but Nicholson added gloss to the scoreline in injury-time.
Taking down Robbie Muirhead’s deep back post cross, Nicholson wrapped his left- foot around the bouncing ball and fired a shot across the keeper.
HEARTS:
Hamilton 6; Paterson 6, Rossi 6, Souttar 6, Rherras 6; Cowie 6, Djoum 5 (Nicholson 61, 7), Kitchen 5 Walker 7; Watt 6 (Muirhead 71, 4), Sammon 5 (Johnsen 61, 4) Unused subs – Ozturk, Buaben, Noring (GK), Smith.
HAMILTON:
Matthews 6; Lyon 6, Sarris 6, Seaborne 3 (Want 19, 5), Gillespie 6; Donati 6; Imre 6, Doherty 6 (Redmond 76, 4), Mackinnon 6, Crawford 7; D’Acol 5 (Bingham 54, 5) Unused subs – Kurtaj, Longridge, Brophy, Thomson (GK).