Kilmarnock climbed to second in the Ladbrokes Premiership but were left frustrated as they had to settle for a point from a 1-1 draw against resolute Hamilton.
Steve Clarke’s men fell behind, for the sixth successive match, to the deftest of headers from Dougie Imrie but fought back to earn a point through a clinical Rory McKenzie finish.
The draw extends Killie’s unbeaten run in the league to five matches – but the point is likely to be more welcomed by Martin Canning’s side, who stopped their losing run and edged a point further clear of the bottom two.
The visitors had made a bright start to the match when Imrie nodded them ahead from close range. The quality was all in the delivery from James Keatings, whose dipping free-kick only needed the faintest of touches as Imrie grabbed his first league goal of the season.
The industrious Aaron Tshibola then fired well over the bar as the hosts set about a successful recovery mission for the fifth match in a row.
And Killie drew level on the stroke of half-time when McKenzie got himself on the end of a neat Greg Stewart cutback to score a goal on his first start since July.
It may have been easy for Canning’s side to wilt against a side that had turned losing positions into winning ones in each of their past four matches, but to their credit they continued to come forward and create real goalscoring opportunities.
Norwegian forward Fredrik Burstad had their first gilt-edged opportunity. He ran onto a threaded ball from Mickel Miller but was denied from an acute angle by a strong left hand by Jamie MacDonald.
The Kilmarnock keeper was helpless a few minutes later when Imrie broke free of defensive attentions and delivered a tantalising ball across the goal. Keatings was unmarked at the back post and looked certain to score, but somehow found the side netting with his effort as his team-mates and manager looked on in disbelief.
Killie probed for a winner in the latter stages and were given late encouragement when Accies substitute Steven Boyd was sent off for a second yellow card in the space of five minutes – but they lacked the final quality to break down the strong rearguard.
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