Hamilton held by Killie

Under-strength Hamilton slipped off the top of the Scottish Premiership after being held to a goalless draw by Kilmarnock.Accies were forced into four changes for the New Douglas Park contest and could not maintain a dominant first-half display against Allan Johnston's side.And they needed some good saves from goalkeeper Michael McGovern, notably from Josh Magennis and Rory McKenzie, to extend their unbeaten run to seven games.Hamilton manager Alex Neil included himself in his starting line-up after losing fellow midfielder Darian MacKinnon to a four-match ban following his red card against Dundee United and retrospective ban for striking Tannadice midfielder Paul Paton.And he suffered a triple injury blow with centre-backs Martin Canning and Jesus Garcia Tena dropping out along with centre-forward Mickael Antoine-Curier. Stephen Hendrie, Mikey Devlin and Jason Scotland all came into the team.But the hosts started well and almost took an early lead when Danny Redmond's pass found Tony Andreu, who had drifted off his marker inside the box. However, the attacking midfielder fired just wide of the far post on the turn.Accies remained on top and were causing problems with their short, sharp passing, although they were largely confined to long-range shots.Craig Samson pushed away decent efforts from distance from Hendrie, Andreu and Ali Crawford, and the Kilmarnock goalkeeper also reacted well to grasp the ball after Neil headed it into the path of Scotland.The visitors were struggling to keep the ball for long spells and looked at their most dangerous when they got the ball out to Tope Obadeyi, but they rarely threatened to carve out an opening.Killie got tighter on their opponents after the break and began to force some chances of their own.McGovern needed to be quickly off his line to stop Magennis capitalising on a loose ball after Jamie Hamill won a crunching challenge with Neil inside the Killie half.Magennis was very harshly booked by Kevin Clancy after the goalkeeper was hurt in the ensuing race for the ball, with the Killie forward planting a kiss on his Northern Ireland team-mate's head in apology.Magennis then outmuscled Ziggy Gordon on the right-hand side and cut into the box but McGovern was off his line to block the shot.Crawford and Sammy Clingan had free-kicks saved at either end before McGovern saved the hosts again following a sublime pass from substitute Alexei Eremenko.The Finn put McKenzie through with an inch-perfect pass inside left-back Hendrie but McGovern quickly narrowed the angle and blocked the shot with his body.Hamilton rallied to finish strongly but substitute Darren Lyon and Crawford could not trouble Samson with long-range efforts, and they left the field to discover that Inverness had replaced them at the top of the table.