KILMARNOCK ascended to the giddy heights of second place in the Premiership but this still felt like an opportunity missed.
Steve Clarke’s side extended their recent bad habit of conceding the first goal for a sixth game in succession but on this occasion, unlike the previous four, they couldn’t turn a losing position into a victory.
Rory McKenzie’s equaliser just before half-time seemed to give them a platform to go on to rack up a fifth win on the bounce, but they created little of note in the second half and had no complaints about having to settle for a draw.
The point still carries them above Celtic and into second place, although the smattering of boos at full-time was a stark reminder of the level of expectation around Rugby Park these days.
“It was scrappy and scruffy,” admitted Clarke. “A lot of huff and puff. But it’s another point. That’s 13 points from 15 and if you had said to me five games ago that we would have 20 points and be sitting second in the league, I would have said ‘yeah, okay’.”
Hamilton’s wait for a win in October goes on and they will surely look back on the chance missed by James Keatings early in the second half as a pivotal moment in their ongoing misfortune. It had seemed inconceivable that he could miss from a matter of yards after Dougie Imrie had laid the ball right into his path and yet, to the astonishment of everyone inside Rugby Park, the forward somehow squirted the chance wide. The forward, to his credit, did not try to hide from the blame.
“I’m beating myself up about that chance at the back post,” he said. “I’ve come off the pitch thinking I should have scored and we should have taken the three points. I’ve apologised to the lads for that.”
Keatings had a rival for the game’s pantomime villain in team-mate Steven Boyd who endured a brief and inglorious cameo. Arriving as a 78th minute substitute, he received his first yellow card after 86th minute and then collected another as play moved into injury time.
Hamilton had done enough by then to secure a first draw of the season to move another point further away from relegation trouble.
“We knew it would be difficult to come down here and take points,” said manage Martin Canning. “But we believed we could and were maybe a bit unfortunate with Keatings' chance.”
Keeping with recent tradition, Kilmarnock let the opposition score first. It had been fairly scrappy until that point, the home team dominant in terms of possession but Hamilton enjoying the best chance when Aaron Tshibola almost bundled the ball past his own goalkeeper.
Twelve minutes before half-time, however, Kilmarnock wouldn’t be quite as fortunate. The source of the chance was again a Keatings free-kick, arrowed with venom towards the near post where Imrie stooped to ensure it found a route beyond Jamie MacDonald.
Hamilton looked good for a half-time lead but would come to regret a temporary lapse in concentration in the final minute. Greg Stewart’s ball across the box looked nicely teed up for Tshibola to tap in but in nicked McKenzie to steal both the ball and the glory. Kilmarnock were level.
The expectation then was that Clarke’s side would go on to gradually crank up the pressure in the second half to claim a winning goal but instead ran out of steam and ideas.
“When you don’t play well it’s important you don’t lose,” added the manager. “We didn’t play well today but we didn’t lose. That shows a good mentality.”
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