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THESE teams were dragged down from the Premiership together but, on this evidence, appear to be going in different directions. Kilmarnock left New Douglas Park with a third league win in a row while Hamilton failed to add to their solitary point as they were brushed aside.
Scott Robinson’s was the man of the hour as his cunning proved too much for Accies to handle. His fine brace – one with his head and the second curled into the bottom corner – was enough for the guests who kept their former top flight foes at arm’s length and looked like they had at least a couple more gears to use.
They might need them in the weeks to come but for now Tommy Wright’s Killie arrived in Hamilton to get all three points and, with very little fuss, they did just that.
Chris Burke had told his Kilmarnock team-mates to prepare for a ‘new manager bounce’ and, in the opening stages at least, they seemed to heed that warning. Scott Robinson, taking the place of Innes Cameron, cunningly pulled at the threads of the hosts’ backline and on more than one occasion created a Blair Alston-sized hole for the former Hamilton player to dash into.
Hamilton new manager Stuart Taylor
He also did the same for Liam Polworth but, like Alston before him, the midfielder’s early effort evaded Ryan Fulton’s goal.
With the travelling fans in fine voice, this was a Kilmarnock side full of energy, pace, and endeavour in those opening exchanges. Darting and dashing, drifting and dribbling, this was also everything Tommy Wright’s team had so badly lacked last season when too often they seemed content to play the game with as much urgency as the Foreign Secretary answering a phone call.
A Killie goal looked inevitable at that point and their fine play nearly came to a head when Polworth, Robinson, and Rory McKenzie combined to carve out another half chance for Alston, only for Brian Easton to bravely block. John Beaton’s whistle, having spotted a foul from the visiting midfielder, was a welcome reprieve for the Accies.
So too was Andy Ryan who, having had enough of watching blue shirts charge beyond him and towards his own box, did his best to drag the hosts towards the other way. Isolated for much of the first-half – the former Airdrieonians forward dropped deeper to become involved, drew fouls from Killie’s backline, and gave Accies time to gather their thoughts.
With Guillaume Beuzelin, taking the place of newly appointed Stuart Taylor in the dugout today, waving his team on, for a fleeting moment they sprang into life. A dangerous Josh Mullin cross had to be headed away at the back post by Jason Naismith with Scott McMann charging in, while Zach Hemming pushed Lewis Smith’s effort out for a corner.
Blair Alston impressed for his new team
But that was really that as far as Accies were concerned in the first-half and for Taylor the bigger worry might have been the ease with which Killie held their hosts at arm’s-length despite the mini-revival. That quickly abated when Hamilton emerged with more attacking intent after the interval.
The hosts’ model is well worn by now: they breed their own and choose managers with a history in red and white. Taylor is the fifth in-a-row to have also played at New Douglas Park and fittingly it was an academy starlet who looked to have sparked the Accies into action.
Having found his chances limited in the first-half, Smith made the most of Killie’s slow start sound his side’s advance when he sprayed a delightful crossfield pass into the path of George Stanger, who picked out Mullin’s dart into the box. The winger’s dangerous shot flashed past Hemming’s far post.
Next Smith found himself in space on the left and, with Dylan McGowan pleading for back-up, flicked the ball invitingly for the rampaging Lewis Spence but Euan Murray and Hemming combined to block on the line.
That lightning quick start to the second-half might have been enough to spook lesser teams but the Accies charge soon ran out of steam. Killie needed no second invitation to take full advantage and open the scoring.
It was a wonderful goal, coming against the run of play and a shock to all but Robinson. When Brandon Haunstrup picked the ball up on the left, Robinson used all of his craftiness to escape the clutches of Jamie Hamilton and bullet the left-back’s cross beyond Fulton. The assist could not have been more perfectly placed had the Englishman picked it up, strolled beyond the Accies backline, and put it on Robinson’s head.
If that knocked the stuffing out of Accies, a second less than five minutes later finished the job. Robinson was only too happy to stick the knife into the Hamilton carcass when he finished off a fine break by feinting to fool Fulton and finding the corner, much to the delirium of the baying away support.
More to follow…
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