As calamitous anniversary presents go, this made a bunch of wilting petrol station flooers look positively thoughtful. Twenty years after winning the Scottish Cup, Kilmarnock marked the occasion with a desperate, last gasp defeat. These two sides last met in the domestic game’s premier knock-out competition back in 1953 and it almost felt that long since Hamilton had actually won a game. Some 12 matches had passed since they last savoured that winning feeling but Rakish Bingham’s 90th minute penalty brought that wretched run to an end in a largely grim encounter that was about as easy on the eye as the Trump Inauguration.

Lee Clark, the Kilmarnock manager, handed starts to five new faces but it was a disastrous debut for Karleigh Osborne as he brought down Grant Gillespie in the final seconds to hand Hamilton the decisive spot-kick from which Bingham confidently performed the necessaries.

“We’ve conceded a lot of late goals to lose points in the league so it’s pleasing to win a cup tie like this,” said the Hamilton manager, Martin Canning. “Now we need to build on this. We have the quality but if we can add that bit of belief we can have a good second half of the season.”

With three of those new signings forming part of the Kilmarnock defence – Osborne, Celtic loanee Kristoffer Ajer and goalkeeper Freddie Woodman – it was hardly surprising that the rearguard appeared decidedly shoogly. Hesitancy and indecision led to one or two dicey moments early on. Woodman had to pull off a couple of saves as Kilmarnock struggled to clear their lines while Ajer got a vital challenge in on Alexandre D’Acol just as he was about the unleash a shot on goal after taking down a terrific Ali Crawford pass.

There was plenty of huffing, puffing endeavour on show but the graft certainly overshadowed the craft. There wasn’t much to overshadow, of course, during a grisly spectacle. Even the stadium clock seemed to get bored and stopped working for a spell. Frozen on 38 minutes, most feared the torturous nature of the opening period would simply never end. Mercifully, it did. The only problem was that there was another half to endure. It began sprightly enough. Craig Roberts spurned a good chance with a header at the back post while, at the other end, D’Acol glanced one onto the roof of the net. With the dulled senses mildly roused by that brief flurry, the fare on offer became all rather turgid again as proceedings plootered on against a backdrop of cursing, groaning exasperation. The inability of the Kilmarnock players to to deliver a decent set piece or an incisive final ball proved particularly infuriating

Hamilton at least had the purposeful, creative industry of Crawford in their midst and he looked the most likely figure to prosper in this otherwise barren land. He almost nicked it with five minutes to go when his tidy, looping dink brought out a fine, full stretch save from the leaping Woodman. The Kilmarnock keeper could do nothing to stop Bingham stealing the glory late on, though.

“We’ve gone out the cup with a whimper,” lamented Clark, who was adamant that his decision to play five debutants was not a gamble.

It certainly didn’t pay off.