Accies boss: The Wolf was just emotional
Hamilton boss Martin Canning forgave Eamonn Brophy for the way he celebrated scoring against his former club.
The men were teammates for two years before Canning became the striker’s manager in 2015.
Brophy elected to leave Accies’ 18 months ago, moving to Kilmarnock.
Many players decide to have only a muted celebration when they hit the net against a former club.
That wasn’t the case with The Wolf. He ran to the home support, turned and pointed to his name.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t inspire warm memories of his time in red and white.
Canning, however, was understanding of the way the 22-year-old reacted.
He said: “The last three or four times we played Killie, Eamonn hasn’t had the best of games.
“He’s so determined to do well, maybe it was just emotion coming out.
“When he left Hamilton he wanted to move on. The club didn’t want him to go.
“He got an opportunity and did well. He managed to get his goal and it’s maybe an outpouring of relief.
“It’s part of the game. He’s a young kid and he’s done well for himself.
“He did well and has huge potential to do well again.”
Getting a point against Kilmarnock could prove to be really important for Hamilton.
St Mirren’s win at Motherwell means the Buddies are now just two points behind the Lanarkshire outfit.
Killie have been one of the form teams in the Premiership this year and Canning viewed the draw a decent outcome against one of the top sides.
He went on: “We know we can compete with anyone in the league on our day but it’s making sure we have our day often enough.
“Everyone needs to be switched on, but if you have guys switching off we’re not capable of winning.
“Bigger teams can maybe have four, five or six playing well. We need players playing well en masse.”
Accies weren’t helped by losing Darian MacKinnon and James Keatings to injury.
Steven Boyd missed the game with a heavy cold and Alex Penny sat it out with a knee injury.
Canning hopes to have some of them back for the Boxing Day game at Hearts.
He said: “It’s not ideal when you need to make changes.
“Shaun Want came on and did well, then Darian and James picked up knocks.
“Daz felt his calf but it was tight before the game and we didn’t risk it.
“Keatings has a dead leg and it’s about them getting treatment as now.”