AFTER being written off in many quarters, Hamilton Accies continue to defy the critics and moved off the bottom of the table when Richard Offiong scored for the third game in a row to leapfrog St Mirren in a match of little skill but plenty of effort.

Accies were slaughtered by Dundee United manager Craig Levein last week for their style of football, but manager Billy Reid isn't the offended type and he got his side to play to their strengths again as they outfought a disappointing Kilmarnock side.

After being largely outplayed in the first half, Offiong's goal at the start of the second won them the points, although a feelingof deja vu must have entered Reid's head as Simon Ford prepared to shoot from eight yards out in the fourth minute of injury time, since United had also snatched a point at the death last week.

Reid admitted: "That would have been devastating for us if he had scored. It would have killed us if we had lost another goal at that time after what happened at United last week.

"For the first four or five weeks of the season, we had been playing well, but that wasn't the case today. We weren't at our best but the important thing for us was to win the three points.

"We are learning to be patient. We are maturing and I feel as if we have turned the corner but, of course, there is a long way to go. But we are Hamilton and we knew this was going to be the case."

Killie goalkeeper Alan Combe failed to recover from a rib injury and Damien Rascle took his place in goal. Simon Ford came close to opening the scoring in the eighth minute when he nodded Willie Gibson's cross from the left into the ground and just wide. David Fernandez tested Tomas Cerny with a 25-yard effort as the visitors took a grip on the match.

It took Accies until the half-hour mark before Rascle was actually tested and, had he been wearing a cap, he could have comfortably threw it on James McArthur's long-range trundler to save it. A Mark McLaughlin headed effort soon after didn't provide any more of a test for the goalkeeper.

No doubt, though, Kilmarnock were the better team in a desperate opening half and some lovely twisting and turning from Mehdi Taouil saw his cross from the left headed wide by Manuel Pascali.

It was going to take a goal of quality to beat the deadlock and Offiong provided that in the 52nd minute. He managed to roll Garry Hay too easily on the right edge of the box after receiving a pass from David Graham before cutting in and drilling a low shot past Rascle into the corner of the net. Offiong is enjoying his rich vein of form.

"It was just so important to get the three points today and I think we thoroughly deserved it as well," he said. "I feel we have turned the corner and it helps when you get players like Mark McLaughlin coming back into the side.' Suddenly, Killie were looking vulnerable and McLaughlin almost took advantage of uncertainty in the visitors box when his scrambled effort, while on the floor, was desperately booted to safety by a cluster of Killie defenders on the line.

Kilmarnock stepped it up again, though, and introduced sub Donovan Simmonds. With almost his first touch, he missed a glorious opportunity to drag his side level.

Simon Ford's miskicked shot across goal wrong-footed the Accies defenders and fell perfectly for Simmonds six yards out. He measured up the chance before managing to produce an old-fashioned blooter over the bar.

It provoked howls of disbelieve from manager Jim Jefferies and his assistant Billy Brown in the dug-out and he still couldn't believe he had missed it after the match.

"Simmonds should have scored - it was the easiest chance we have had all season. I really don't know how he has managed to miss it, but he knows that himself.

"I don't think we have had a performance for a long time where we have had so much of a game and not taken anything out of it. On the balance of play, we were the better side and I just couldn't see us losing. All week we were talking about their threat from corners and they got their first one in the 86th minute!"

Kilmarnock threw everything at Accies but Jefferies was being harsh on Hamilton because the Lanarkshire side looked the more likely to add to their tally with several forays up the park against the exposed Killie defence.

But they had that one last chance in injury time when Simon Ford - who was pushed up to a striker's role - got on the end of a Simmonds knockdown and would have equalised if it wasn't for a brilliant instinctive save with his right leg by Tomas Cerny.

The "devastating" feeling for Reid and Accies had been avoided and anyone who writes his Hamilton side off may be devastated, too.

Hamilton substitutes: Lyle for Graham 76, Akins for Offiong 80, Gibson for McCarthy 87 Not used: Murdoch, Elebert, Ettien, Taylor Booked: McClenehan Kilmarnock substitutes: Simmonds for Hay 58, Russell for Fernandez 74 Not used: Harpur, Murray, Skelton, Flannigan, Cox Booked: Wright, Bryson

Referee: I Brines Att: 2903