Accies strike late to prevent Jags topping them
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 centrehalfs – 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
where Abdul Osman cleverly set up Lindsay to head into the net.
In a reversal of the opening half it was Thistle who piled forward from the restart with Woods pulling off a great save from Erskine who was through on goal before Doolan pulled his shot wide.
The closest Hamilton came was when home defender Ziggy Gordon side-footed an attempted clearance just over his own bar.
It was the visiting keeper who continued to star, denying Doolan and then sub Ade Azeez.
But as the final whistle beckoned Hamilton rallied to devastating effect.
Greg Docherty on his own chipped past the post before Brophy, released by Imrie, ran in to score.
Despite the point, Hamilton boss Martin Canning was little happier than his Thistle counterpart.
He said: “We came back today to get a point so that was better. We’re playing well but not getting three points.
“We should be putting the ball more often in the back of the net.”