BROPH ‘N SMOOTH

Eamonn helps pals out of spot he put them in

Eamonn Brophy sent old club Accies deeper into relegation trouble – then gave them a helping hand to get out of it.

The Killie striker opened the scoring in an eventful first half and infuriated the home support by celebrating wildly in front of them.

But it was Accies fans celebrating wildly when Brophy stuck out an arm to concede the penalty that earned their side a deserved point.

Killie brought a massive, vocal support of more than 2000, filling the stand behind the goal, and they were confident that their team’s dream season would continue at the expense of Accies, whose plight could have hardly been more different.

Their belief in Steve Clarke’s team looked well founded as Killie stormed ahead after just six minutes.

Brophy did the damage with a low angled drive from 12 yards after good build-up work from Jordan Jones and Greg Taylor on the left.

And the former Hamilton player wasn’t shy about celebrating in front of the home fans either.

Jones almost doubled the lead with a curling drive two minutes later and at that stage Martin Canning’s Accies were hanging on for dear life.

Aaron McGowan tried to do some- thing about that with a superb run into the Killie box in the 17th minute.

But it was matched by an equally fine and perfectly timed Scott Boyd tackle that summed up the quality of the Ayrshire outfit’s work.

If Clarke’s men were gui lty of anything, it was failing to put the game to bed.

They paid the price in 37 minutes when a needlessly conceded penalty - Brophy clearly used his arm to divert a James Keatings cross after a short corner had worked its way back to the striker - threw Accies a lifeline.

Mikel Miller duly grabbed the glory by sending Danny Bachmann the wrong way and Accies went in at the break level. Three minutes after the restart they were desperately unlucky not to be in front.

A terrific run across the pitch by Miller ended with a pass into the path of Scott McMann and the wing back smacked the base of the post with a drive from just inside the box.

Despite losing skipper Darian MacKinnon and Keatings to injuries, Accies continued to give as good as they got in the second period.

They were helped by Killie going off the boil. Clarke obviously felt the same because he hooked Brophy in the 66th minute, turning to Kris Boyd to try to provide the spark that had gone out on their performance.

It didn’t take Boyd long to jab a halfchance at Gary Woods. He claimed he had been pulled back in the process, but it didn’t look like a penalty.

Boyd then provided the 75th minute flick- on for Greg Stewart to home in on goal but the striker, who has been on fire, dragged his effort well wide with only Woods to beat.

It was a poor miss but it was a sign that the visitors were reasserting their authority.

Accies, though, remained resilient and could have even nicked it in injury time when Miller forced Bachmann into a scrambled save. A draw, though, was the right result. Canning agreed. He said: “It was a hard fought point. You expect that when you play Kilmarnock.

“They started well, are high on confidence and going well at the top of the league. They scored early and we got through that period and ground it out. We got the goal then started the second half well and were unfortunate not to go ahead.

“A draw was probably a fair result but we haven’t got what we deserved at times earlier in the season.”