Hamilton Academical 1-1 Kilmarnock

Sean Longstaff opens the scoring for Kilmarnock

Hamilton Academical and Kilmarnock shared the points from a hard-fought draw at New Douglas Park.

Sean Longstaff gave the visitors an early lead as Killie dominated for much of the first half.

However, Accies equalised with two minutes of the first half remaining through Eamonn Brophy.

Both sides created chances in the second half, Kris Boyd going close for Killie and Danny Seaborne for Accies, but neither side could find a winner.

Kilmarnock started the game brightly and took the lead on seven minutes when Longstaff picked up the ball 22 yards out and drilled a low shot past Gary Woods for his second goal in two matches.

The visitors were passing superbly from the back with Celtic loanee Kristoffer Ajer outstanding in central defence, but his mood was in contrast to that of Boyd up front. The former Scotland striker was increasingly frustrated by the lack of a killer pass to capitalise on the early ascendancy.

That failure was compounded as Accies got into the game more, and substitute Brophy, who had come on for Alex D'Acol, should have done better from a good Danny Redmond pass.

But Brophy more than made up for that with two minutes to go to the interval, a sublime turn and shot from 20 yards flowing past Freddie Woodman for the youngster's second goal of the season.

Conor Sammon, on loan from Hearts, came off the bench to aid Killie's attack

The second period did not bring as many chances, especially as Accies got closer to their men and did not give Killie the same space in which to play.

Rory McKenzie did set up Boyd two minutes after the break but the striker hooked his shot wide before Redmond caused all sorts of confusion in the home defence from a corner.

The visitors brought on January loanee Conor Sammon for Boyd, but it was McKenzie who had the last chance to win the game in injury time, with his header saved by Woods.

Hamilton Academical manager Martin Canning: "I think a point was just about right. Kilmarnock started better than we did but we changed it and I was pleased with our second-half performance.

"I will take a point, it is four out of six and while I would have wanted six out of six, this is still valuable.

"This league is so tight, it only takes two or three wins in a row for people to push themselves into the top six. I have not spoken about totals or targets to stay in the division, but we are looking up the way rather than down and it has been a good few days."

Kilmarnock manager Lee Clark: "It was frustrating in the end because I thought we were outstanding in the first half-hour and so dominant. But we had to scrap and fight for a result all the same.

"We have had four games against Hamilton this season and they have all been extremely tight which shows you how close we all are. These are the games, though, it would be good to take points from.

"We shot ourselves in the foot a bit, but we are really young and I'm excited about the future, especially when you see the quality on the bench today.

"I want to find a way of getting two strikers on the pitch and Conor Sammon will play a big part in that.

"I am looking upwards and that is why I am frustrated. It is not arrogance, but we have to have that belief that we can get in their further up the table."