Crawford’s late penalty earns Accies a point
A LATE Ali Crawford penalty rescued a point for Hamilton as the visitors came from two down to secure a 2-2 draw at Kilmarnock.
The home side took an early lead after Louis Longridge deflected Dominic Thomas’s wicked free- kick past keeper Gary Woods.
Kilmarnock doubled their lead in the second half when substitute Lee Erwin coolly converted Adam Frizzell’s through ball.
Erwin, who was a first-half sub for the injured Kris Boyd, calmly lobbed the ball over Woods give the home side what seemed like a comfortable lead.
However, Hamilton dragged themselves back into the match with 18 minutes remaining.
Kilmarnock’ s Gordon Greer appeared to misjudge Xavier Tomas’ long ball and Scott McMann found himself in behind the Killie defence.
McMann’s cross found Giannis Skondras at the back post and he finished with a superb left- foot volley that left Killie keeper Jamie MacDonald helpless.
With only minutes remaining and Accies pressing for an equaliser, Kilmarnock captain Steven Smith miscontrolled the ball inside his own box and allowed Greg Docherty to take the ball from his toe.
In a desperate bid to win the ball back, Smith fouled Docherty and handed Hamilton the perfect opportunity to take a point from the match.
Crawford expertly converted the penalty and
ensured Hamilton left with a share of the points.
Afterwards Hamilton manager Martin Canning insisted he was happy with result and the way his side fought their way back into the match.
He said: “The fighting spirit was great and we managed to grind out a point. I thought we played well enough and we were creating opportunities, we should’ve scored right before we scored our first goal.
“We believed it would come and that we would get a chance. Overall I’m delighted with the result given we were 2-0 down with 25 to go.”
A frustrated Killie manager Lee McCulloch said: “In any game of football anywhere in the world when you go 2-0 up you have to see the game out.
“I thought when we went 2- 0 up there was a sense of nervousness for some reason.
“At that point, the chests should come out and we should pass the ball better, quicker than we were.
“We played better in the first two games of the season than we did today, and we got a point from today which must be a positive.
“Our home record isn’t too good. That’s our fourth home game but only our first points on the board. It’s something that will need to be addressed very quickly.”