Kawashima denies Crawford from the spot as Dundee United claim point

Eji Kawashima's late heroics rescued a point for Ladbrokes Premiership basement boys Dundee United against Hamilton at New Douglas Park.With four minutes to go the Japanese goalkeeper threw himself to his right to keep out Ali Crawford's penalty and ensure a tense battle finished level.Hamilton were then reduced to 10 men in injury-time when a late, and needless, challenge on Billy McKay earned Michael Devlin a second yellow card.The first half was an uninspiring affair, with both sides struggling to carve out meaningful changes.The only moments of interest came in the final 10 minutes of the half, with Crawford driving through the middle following a good move, but firing a rising shot about a foot over the bar.A minute later good work by United's John Rankin down the left put the ball into Simon Murray's path, but his shot was kept out by Michael McGovern.The lively Crawford then raced through on the right only to be stopped in his tracks by Paul Paton.Hamilton began the second period on the front foot, with Grant Gillespie blasting wide and a Crawford corner being cleared just as Devlin looked prepared to nod in at the near post.But the hosts could not afford to switch off and were almost punished when a slip by Lucas Tagliapietra allowed Guy Demel to send McKay through, but his shot was well blocked.In the 54th minute United's claims for a penalty when Coll Donaldson went down under a challenge by Tagliapietra were waved away by referee Steven McLean.Gramoz Kurtaj had the ball in the net for Hamilton after 58 minutes, but he had already been flagged offside as he latched on to Dougie Imrie's ball.But, when Paton sent Imrie crashing to the turf inside the area as time ran out, Crawford was presented with the chance to settle the contest from the spot. However, Kawashima guessed the right way and kept out his effort.That save spurred on United and they might have snatched a winner, with the tireless Demel and Donaldson both seeing efforts blocked.And things went from bad to worse for Hamilton when Devlin was dismissed moments before the final whistle.