Saturday 20 September 2014 18:46, UK
Hamilton player-manager Alex Neil was satisfied with his patched-up side's goalless home draw with Kilmarnock, despite the result seeing them slip off the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Neil made his first appearance for five weeks after being forced into four changes, but his side still dominated the first half before needing good saves from Michael McGovern to deny Josh Magennis and Rory McKenzie after half-time.
"With the disruption we had during the week with having Martin Canning, (Jesus) Garcia Tena, Mickael Antoine-Curier pulling out before the game and Darian MacKinnon being suspended, and then also taking myself, Jason Scotland and Dougie Imrie off during the game, we ended up without seven of our most experienced players, so I was happy with a point," he said.
"I was happy with the performance of the players considering the adapting we had to do.
"And the team that finished the game were probably as young a team as we have had in quite a while, and I thought they held their own. I was really pleased with them."
Neil was not concerned at all with losing top spot to Inverness.
"I said before the game we are just looking at points accumulated," he added.
"That's us got 14 points and we are unbeaten since our opening game against Inverness. I think we did enough to take the lead. Kilmarnock had a few chances as well in the second half, so a draw was a fair result."
Killie boss Allan Johnston agreed with that assessment.
"I think it's fair to say that the first half they were the better team," he said.
"They closed us down better, they passed the ball better, had a couple of chances, whereas second half I thought we were by far the better team.
"We passed the ball better, created chances and probably should have scored. So a point is probably a fair result."
Johnston felt his side played with more belief after half-time.
"Sometimes you have to get on the ball and not hide," he said. "We did that second half. We have good players and they showed what they are capable of.
"It's good when you have guys like Alexei (Eremenko) as well coming close to full fitness. You saw the quality he brought to the game when he came on. I don't think any other person on the park could have played that pass he played for Rory McKenzie's chance."
