A first half 25-yard strike from, Conor O’Keefe, saw the St Mirren Development team leave Hamilton’s SuperSeal stadium with their heads held high but without a single point, after losing 3-1 against Hamilton Accies.
The Accies were off to a flyer when a Hamilton attack in the fourth minute saw a headed shot pushed on to the post and out for a corner in the first minute.
Hamilton remained dominant in possession and harassed the Buddies defence. The Saints could not clear their lines well enough and keeper Chris Henry saved an ambitious shot just four minutes later but could not keep the ball out of the path of Hamilton midfielder Ronan Hughes who pounced to put the ball in the St Mirren net.
The young Buddies grew into the game and began to create attacks from keeping better possession. It took nearly 20 minutes for the visitors to break the deadlock following wave after wave of missed opportunities and careless mistakes.
Josh Todd received the ball, in the 26th minute of the game, on the left hand side and after a touch to set up the strike from 25 yards; he curled the ball past Darren Jamieson and into the top corner of the Hamilton goal.
St Mirren created more chances and a great ball whipped in from a corner was ruined after the ref stopped play for a foul on a Hamilton defender inside the box. An end-to-end half was finished with an Accies shot that was wide of the mark.
HALF TIME: Hamilton 1-1 St Mirren
The Saints started the second half how they ended the first, with some fine attacking play and flowing possession. But Hamilton regained the lead on the 49th minute when their first attack of the half put them in front once more through Ryan Tierney.
Two minutes later, Buddies keeper Henry calmly dealt with a cross from a free kick and from there a St Mirren attack was built but unfortunately saw the ball go just wide of the post.
The Paisley team grew from strength to strength as they continued to bombard the Hamilton defence and a great spell of play saw a long pass from left back, neatly controlled pass from O’Keefe’s shoulder.
The touch was so good O’Keefe got a shot away, in the 53rd minute, after he ran into the box and forced a great save. Accies keeper Jamieson must have been relieved as the thunderous strike from O’Keefe was sure to be his second of the game if it had hit the target.
The game remained tight until the dying minutes when a Hamilton striker was brought down in the box and the referee awarded a penalty with just five minutes left to play. Tierney slotted the penalty away to make it 3-1 to the hosts.
The hard-working Saints could not put away any more of their chances as efforts from Josh Todd were held by the Hamilton goalkeeper.
FULL TIME: Hamilton 3-1 St Mirren
