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."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article