KRIS BOYD has done it so many times that when you have the opportunity to stop him scoring, especially the winner 11 minutes from time when you’re looking over your shoulder at the prospect of relegation, it’s wise to do so.

“Criminal” was the exact word both Hamilton manager Martin Canning and midfielder Darian MacKinnon used to describe their defence after leaving Boyd free to side-foot home Killie right-back Aaron Simpson’s cutback.

Having been let out of jail courtesy of substitute David Templeton’s first touch, a free-kick from the edge of the box that whipped off the post and rebounded into the net off goalkeeper Leo Fasan, going on to leave Boyd to himself was, well, criminal.

“That was a kick in the teeth,” added MacKinnon, whose side are five ahead of basement-dwellers Partick Thistle and four above Ross County in the play-off spot. “It’s frustrating but you just can’t leave Kris Boyd standing on his own in your six-yard box. We were well warned about that beforehand but it’s mistakes like that that are costing us games and they could cost us our place in this division if we don’t sort that out.”

If Hamilton, who remembered former manager John Lambie with a minute’s applause before kick-off, fear being dragged into the drop zone, Kilmarnock, whose fans travelled in excellent numbers, are enjoying being top of the table – well, if there was one that ran solely from Christmas they would be. Regardless, chasing fourth place in the Ladbrokes Premiership, Steve Clarke’s side now have six league wins in a row.

They took their time to get going against Hamilton though, the first half epitomised the match that had been forgotten, the final fixture before the split sandwiched in between the showpiece of the two Hampden Scottish Cup semi-finals.

That was until the 41st minute when Hamilton, having contributed nothing in the way of chances, then proceeded to clatter three excellent efforts from distance at Fasan in the Kilmarnock goal before the half-time whistle.

First up was MacKinnon, running on to a pass from Ali Crawford at the edge of the box to thunder a drive off the top of the crossbar and over.

Hamilton then took advantage of Simpson losing the ball to launch a break that saw Crawford perhaps choose the wrong option of selecting Rakish Bingham in front of him rather than Lewis Ferguson to the right. However, Bingham’s shot required a strong hand from the leaping Fasan to turn over the bar.

Fasan then produced an even better save from Ferguson in the next attack, a dipping shot that the Italian had to fling himself left to palm away.

Having only created half chances up until that point, Kilmarnock took the lead in the 63rd minute when Gary Dicker curled in a free-kick from the left touchline with his right foot that Kirk Broadfoot powered past Gary Woods into the corner for his first goal of the season.

“He actually scored one in training the other day,” teased Boyd, who has 21 for the campaign.

Substitute Eamonn Brophy could have added a third late on against his old club, Woods getting down to save well from the striker’s shot from the edge of the box but Kilmarnock settled for Boyd’s winner, even though Ferguson came close to earning a point in injury-time, his header from Templeton’s corner whizzing past the far post.

Clarke, however, downplayed talk of fourth spot and Europe, with his side still four points off Hibernian.

“It’s a little bit disrespectful to Motherwell because they’ve just reached the cup final," said Clarke.

“If they win the cup, which they can do, then it doesn’t come down to fourth place.

“The first objective was to avoid relegation, the second objective was to reach top six and we’ve done that.

“The next objective is to secure fifth.”

He added: “If we have a chance to be fourth, we’ll think about that."