DOUGIE IMRIE made it two goals in two games when he scored Hamilton’s opener to spark a 2-1 comeback win at Rugby Park and help move his side up to fourth place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
The two sides had largely cancelled each other out in the first half hour but when Greg Kiltie put the home side in front after 34 minutes, the game came to life.
Kilmarnock seemed to be over their disappointment of going out to Hearts in the League Cup in midweek due to two last-minute goals but within a few minutes of the second half starting, Hamilton were level thanks to a fierce volley from Imrie and Ali Crawford scored Hamilton’s after 64 minutes. Kilmarnock had Lee Ashcroft red-carded in stoppage time for pulling back Imrie as he raced through on goal.
Imrie was delighted to have followed up his first goal of the season against Motherwell the previous weekend with a second in the very next game and he was equally pleased with his team’s performance after going a goal down. “It’s good to be scoring more goals for the team, I’ve lacked that in the last few seasons,” he said. “But the most important thing is the team performance. We didn’t play well in the first half but in the second I thought we were excellent. It’s a terrific result, a great three points and surely but steadily we’re climbing up the table.”
Imrie aims to continue his goalscoring for when Accies host Celtic on Sunday. The 32-year-old realises that will be easier said than done though. “It’s going to be an extremely tough game against Celtic, it always is,” he said. “They have vast experience and quality players throughout their team.
"Everyone will need to be playing at the top of their game to even think about getting a result against Celtic. I’ve scored against them before, so if I can get another goal and make it three in three, I’ll be delighted.”
Hamilton tasted victory against Celtic when they secured a 1-0 victory at Parkhead last season and Imrie admits that is something his team will take confidence from.
That the champions will only have three days to recover from their Europa League match against Fenerbahce could also be an encouraging sign for Hamilton but Imrie does not place too much importance on Celtic’s lack of recovery time.
“They have so many players to choose from and they’re all excellent, it’s not as if they'd be bringing in any duds,” he said. “They’re all quality players – most of them will be internationalists as well so whatever XI they pick will be very strong.
"We have to hope that three, four or five of Celtic’s players are having an off day and all 11 of Hamilton’s players are at the top of their game. It’ll be a tough match but it is one we’re looking forward to.”
As for Kilmarnock, this loss put a halt to their resurgence in the league. Having won their previous two Premiership matches and seemingly pulled themselves out of their early season slump, the Rugby Park side looked to be on the up but this home defeat has put the brakes on.
Kallum Higginbotham, who set up their goal, was disappointed they could not capitalise on home advantage. “At 1-0, we were in the driving seat and should have really kicked on from there,” he said. “But we didn’t seem to get going in the second half which was disappointing.
"We had a flurry of chances late on but it was too little, too late. We had enough chances to win the game.
"With no disrespect to Hamilton, who played well, I thought we had the better of the chances, but this has happened too many times this season already and so we need to put that right.”
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