YOU know it's Christmas when a portly fellow with a beard arrives late on the scene with a present for everyone.

The Santa Claus-like figure in question at Rugby Park yesterday - albeit not where Hamilton Accies were concerned - was Alexei Eremenko.

He brought long-awaited cheer to the Kilmarnock support with a quite sumptuous free-kick in the final minute of a game that had seemed to be drifting towards a goalless draw.

It earned Allan Johnston's side their first victory since mid-October and put a stop to a dispiriting run that included seven defeats in their previous eight matches.

The home fans, who had booed the team off at half-time, departed the stadium with a spring in their step, something they hadn't experienced for quite some time. Eremenko remains one of the few genuine entertainers in Scottish football, making it verging on the criminal that he spent the first 77 minutes of this encounter with his backside on the substitutes' bench.

He managed to cram more into his 13-minute cameo than many others achieved in the entirety of the match.

As the game ticked into injury- time and with little sign of a goal from either side, the Finn played a cute reverse pass in to Jamie Hamill, who was dumped to the ground on the edge of the Hamilton box by Mikey Devlin.

It was set up perfectly for Eremenko and he did not disappoint, arcing a perfect free- kick beyond the despairing dive of Michael McGovern before setting off on a lap of honour that earned him a yellow card and probably an appointment with an oxygen tank.

It was a moment of magic as out of place in an otherwise humdrum encounter as a snowman in the desert.

"We needed a bit of luck and it was that wee bit of quality at the end which decided the game," said a relieved Johnston. "Alexei has that extra bit of quality and composure.

"He has been struggling lately with his back, his groin and his hamstring, but it is good to have someone of his class available."

The man of the moment was pleased to have put a smile on the faces of the home supporters. "Christmas should be a happy time, but before this game it wasn't so happy at Kilmarnock," said Eremenko who revealed that the club's new artificial surface was the source of his recent aches and pains.

"It was an important win for us. Sometimes you have to be lucky and I think maybe we were lucky today."

Hamilton departed Rugby Park nursing a sense of frustration. The better side for most of the match, they passed up the best chance of the game with nine minutes to go when Darian MacKinnon somehow headed over from Ali Crawford's corner. His reaction suggested he knew he ought to have scored and his manager agreed.

"Over the 90 minutes I thought we were the better side and had the better chances," Alex Neil said. "The performance was pleasing, but a bit of naivety cost us."