Former Hamilton keeper Tomas Cerny was the hero for ten-man Partick Thistle as they ground out a draw at New Douglas Park.
Frederic Frans was sent off after 25 minutes for two yellow-card offences, but Hamilton could not find a way past the Czech shot-stopper despite dominating the remainder of the game and creating several good chances.
Hamilton started brightly with Christian Nade providing an effective focal point in attack, and the Thistle centre-back pairing of Frans and youngster Liam Lindsay were looking nervy.
That was underlined as Frans slid in to foul the Accies striker as he looked to break beyond the Jags’ backline on 16 minutes, picking up his first caution.
Worse was to follow for the Belgian stopper, as he left out a lazy leg to trip Accies left-back Anton Kurakins and pick up his second yellow to leave his side a man down.
Ryan Stevenson was sacrificed so that young Jack Hendry could come on to shore up the defence, but the score remained level at half-time only due to Accies’ profligacy, with Chris Turner putting a free header wide from six yards, and Ali Crawford passing up a golden opportunity when he dragged wide from the centre of the box after a clever Dougie Imrie cutback.
Crawford had another good chance on the hour as a great through ball from Grant Gillespie put him through, but Tomas Cerny was equal to his low effort.
Crawford was finding pockets of space and threading some lovely passes between the Thistle defenders, and he created a wonderful opening for Longridge that ex-Accies keeper Cerny was again able to block clear.
Thistle then broke clear through Gary Miller who fed substitute Declan McDaid wide on the right, and Kris Doolan might have done better than guide his right foot cross straight at Michael McGovern.
That man Crawford hit back for Accies, unleashing a rocket of a left-foot effort that Cerny somehow tipped over the bar.
With five minutes remaining a lovely one-touch passing move by Hamilton ended with the best effort of the match, substitute Greg Docherty watching on in disbelief as his left-foot effort from the edge of the area cannoned back off the inside of Cerny’s post to safety.
The home side continued to probe, but Thistle held firm to claim a decent point on the opening day of the campaign
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