You better believe it - Clarke’s Killie show class to beat Accies
Kilmarnock won thanks to goals from Lee Erwin and Stephen O’donnell to leave them unbeaten in nine games.
Killie broke the deadlock as early as the fifth minute when Stephen O’donnell’s cross was collected by Erwin.
He used his strength to hold off young Ronan Hughes and spun to bullet home a shot from seven yards. The home team never looked back from then on.
They dominated possession and used the ball well.
Their attacking fullbacks, O’donnell and Greg Taylor, caused all sorts of problems.
In the middle of the park Alan Power and Gary Dicker were solid and effective. Power, in particular, really caught theeye. When Accies did have possession and threatened to build, Power led the charge to harass his opponents and win the ball back.
It was impressive stuff from Killie, and they showed real energy and determination.
The second goal, right on half-time, was jammy.
Hamilton cleared the ball from a corner and it fell to O’donnell, 40 yards out. He side-footed with some pace back into the danger area and it went through a crowd of players to deceive Gary Woods and passed him, low into his bottom right-hand corner. The goal came at the perfect time to seal the points.
Rugby Park boss Steve Clarke said: “It was a good three points. The only critic is mi have is that we didn’t get a third goal to kill the game because Hamilton never give up and they came close once or twice.
“We scored good goals. Lee’s was a great finish and he has a big future at Kilmarnock.
“Some might want to call Stephen’s goal flukey
but it was a shot on target, so good on him. We played well today and when you look at the strength of our bench you can see why we have bene doing well.” There was more good news for Killie when striker Eamon Brophy signed a new contract to tie him to the club until the summer of 2021.
Clarke said: “Eamon has been fantastic for us.”
Brophy’s strike partner, Kris Boyd, was chasing his 217th league goal to make him the third-highest league scorer, post-war, but the closest he came was in the 50th minute when he was denied by Woods with an effort from eight yards out. Accies never gave up and forced Jamie Macdonald into two good saves after the interval to deny Lewis Ferguson and Georgios Sarris.
Substitute Mickel Miller wasted glorious a chance when he blasted over from six yards out in the 89th minute.
Canning said: “We lost an early goal to put us on the back foot and then to lose a goal on the stroke of half-time was a real sickener. “We created chances in the second half but I don’t think we showed real belief we were going to win it. “We hoped we were going to win but Kilmarnock had genuine belief.”