The Maroon Machine had to settle for a point at home to Hamilton Academical.  Despite a dominant second half, there was no breakthrough for either side as Kelty avoided a home league defeat for only the third time this season.

Kelty Hearts began the second half on the front foot, Brody Paterson delivered an excellent cross into the danger zone.  Lewis Moore brought it down but couldn’t turn it goalwards as Hamilton ‘keeper Josh Lane closed down the angle.

The best chance for the visitors fell in the second half as they were bolstered by the introduction of Oli Shaw from the bench.  Steven Bradley dribbled well down the right and hit the by-line, he cut back for Shaw to tap in but his pass was just ahead of the former Hibs striker.

Arran Pettifer continued his decent start to life at New Central Park as he continued to look dangerous from set-pieces.  From around 30 yards out, Pettifer had Lane scrambling as he did well to push the effort away from the top right corner.  Pettifer tried his luck again from far out later on, this time trying the other top corner to the same result.

The introduction of James Graham from the bench added pace and directness to the Kelty front line.  His hard work down the right saw him deliver a cross for Alex Ferguson at the edge of the box, but his effort was saved.

Hamilton Accies had the better of the chances in the first half.  Most notably, Kyle Gourlay had to get off his line fast to snuff out a chance for Kevin O’Hara.  

Despite all the effort and endeavour, Kelty Hearts were held to a goalless draw.  Reflecting on the match to Kelty Hearts TV, Thomas O’Ware said “I was disappointed with the first half…but I thought in the second half we were excellent.  The defensive structure, the work rate we put in, all that was missing was the cutting edge and the ball to fall for us in the box.”

Written by: Jamie Szmitz

Photography: Kevin Marshall (@KayemPhoto)