Hamilton are now without a win in six games under player-manager Martin Canning after they were held to a goalless Scottish Premiership draw by Kilmarnock.

The Accies had the better of the chances in the match, and both sides had strong penalty claims waved away, but neither side could find the goal to claim all three points.

Hamilton had a decent chance within the opening minutes, Danny Redmond forcing a header through to Grant Gillespie inside the area but Craig Samson made a comfortable save.

A cross into the area by Redmond then caused all sorts of problems for Samson, but with the ball loose in the six-yard area and the Killie keeper floundering, referee Alan Muir blew for a soft-looking foul to bail Samson out.

A slack pass from Tope Obadeyi then allowed Ali Crawford to nick the ball ahead of Chris Chantler, and he found Redmond on the right who had time to feed the ball into Jason Scotland inside the box.

The forward twisted one way and then the other to lose his marker well, but he blazed over from a promising position.

Kilmarnock were screaming for a penalty when Alexei Eremenko freed Obadeyi on the left and the wide man showed a good turn of pace to leave Canning for dead before being up-ended.

The Killie players thought the contact was inside the area, but referee Muir adjudged the offence to be right on the edge of the box and Eremenko's free-kick drifted wide of Michael McGovern's left-hand post.

Darian MacKinnon soon tested Kilmarnock's number one, Samson having to watch his swerving long-range effort closely before parrying away to safety.

A trip on Redmond then allowed Jesus Garcia Tena the chance to line up a free-kick 25 yards from goal, and the defender was unlucky to see his effort just dip over the crossbar onto the top of the Killie net.

Kilmarnock's Obadeyi had a decent chance when Rory McKenzie slid him in on the left, the winger's first time shot drawing the first serious save of the match from McGovern at his near post.

A corner soon after presented an even better opportunity to Obadeyi, who rose highest in the area to meet Eremenko's delivery but headed straight at the Hamilton keeper.

The Rugby Park men should have taken the lead moments later, Obadeyi turning provider on this occasion as his inviting out-swinging cross from the left was glanced inches wide by Josh Magennis.

Garcia Tena flashed a left foot effort just over the crossbar following some nice footwork on the edge of the area by Scotland to set him up, before Gillespie should have done better than volley wide from a good position after latching on to Manuel Pascali's attempted headed clearance.

The Kilmarnock fans were again claiming for a penalty when McKenzie went over in the area as he tried to get on the end of Obadeyi's low cross, but again Muir waved away their appeals.

Hamilton then had a strong claim turned down when MacKinnon's long pass sent Redmond scampering in behind the Killie defence before appearing to be fouled by the desperate lunge of Pascali.

As everyone waited for Muir to point to the spot, again he remained unmoved.

Crawford then had a good chance but elected to shoot from a tight angle rather than cut it back for his better-placed team-mates, and he could only find the side-netting.