Honours even as Killie climb to second spot
Killie managed the neat trick of ascending to second top of the league yet still drawing boos from some of their own supporters at full time.
To be fair, given Steve Clarke’s men have managed to come from behind to win in their last four matches it was easy to understand their sense of anticlimax.
There was no shame in the draw, though, as Accies played well from the start and it was no shock when they took the lead, which ultimately helped them break their losing run.
Greg Taylor’s foul on Mikel Miller gave the visitors a free kick deep in the opposition half. James Keatings stepped up and whipped the ball in to the front post, Dougie Imrie stooped to meet it, and Jamie MacDonald was beaten all ends up.
But the Killie keeper had already been forced to pull off an acrobatic stop from teammate Aaron Tshibola to keep the scores level.
The Congolese midfielder had got stuck under an earlier Keatings free kick to the back post and, under pressure, shanked his clearance straight at his own goal.
Clarke’s men, though, were in familiar territory with comebacks their speciality of late.
So they didn’t panic but kept their shape and composure and quickly worked their way back into the match.
And it was Greg Stewart, on loan and on form, who got things going with a fine ball in from the right.
As Tshibola steadied himself to shoot, Rory McKenzie nicked in front of him to fire off a low shot, straight into the bottom corner of the net.
Home fans who thought it was the beginning of the end of their stress for the day were mistaken, but for a bad miss by Keatings at the back post off an Imrie cross they would have fallen behind again.
“We were maybe a bit unfortunate with that one,” said Accies boss Martin Canning of the mistake.
“It was probably the chance of the second half in that it can win you the game. But to be fair there was no guarantee that would have got us the win.”
It was a fair summary. Honours were even with no clear chance for either side.
It said it all, in fact, that the main talking point was about a refereeing decision, or rather two decisions, with Accies sub Steven Boyd sent off for two rapid fire cautions for fouls on Greg Stewart and Stuart Findlay.
In 12 minutes on the pitch, it was pretty much his only contribution to the action and he cut a disconsolate figure as he trudged off.
Killie manager Steve Clarke by contrast was able to stay philosophical.
“Hamilton were good today,” he said. “They got the game they wanted, the style of play they wanted.
“We didn’t impose ourselves on the game so at the end of the day it’s probably a decent point for us.
“It was scrappy and scruffy. The one good chance in the second half fell for the Hamilton boy at the back post.
“But it’s another point. Thirteen points from 15 and if you had said to me five games ago that we would have 20 points and be sitting second in the league, I would have said: ‘Yeah, OK.’
“When you don’t play well it’s important you don’t lose. We didn’t play well today but we didn’t lose.
“That shows a good mentality.
“That keeps the run going, five games unbeaten. Everybody would have taken that five games ago.”
On that, as on most things with the Killie manager, it was impossible to disagree.