AT 34 years of age, the grizzled, experienced figure of Hamilton Accies defender Matt Kilgannon could have been forgiven for wondering what he was doing in front of 1500 fans on a plastic pitch with sideways rain almost knocking him off his feet after a career in the top half of the English leagues.

But if anything epitomises Accies, it's warriors like him and fellow defender Ziggy Gordon, who was making his 175th Hamilton appearance, throwing everything on the line to ensure the constantly written-off Lanarkshire club chalked up another unexpected, backs-to-the-wall victory.

For 87 minutes, Livingston dominated proceedings, but spurned a host of chances with Jack McMillan, Dolly Menga and Scott Pittman all blowing glaring opportunities. When Mickel Miller was sent off for a second yellow card, it seemed if there was going to be a winner, that it could only go one way.

But on-loan Norwich City substitute striker Mason Bloomfield scored the first senior goal of his career to earn Accies another priceless three points. Classic Accies work – digging out three points from nothing – and it's why they continually defy the odds to stay up year after year.

Former Sheffield United, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland stopper Kilgannon lapped it up and pointed out just how much satisfaction it gave him.

He said: "That’s three games in a week and it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m getting older and one day it will hit me like a steam train, with the likes of Mason going past me and I’ll think I can’t do this anymore. That’s when I’ll stop.

"But I still get nervous before games, I still have my little routines. I’m still enjoying it.

"You want to try playing in that game there. You’re heading a lot of balls, it’s physical, the wind is swirling around and the rain is coming down and then to score in the 88th minute, there’s no better feeling I’ll be honest. It’s better than winning 3-0 on a lovely summer's day. It means you’ve put your work in, a real graft in and it was massive for us.

"It was a huge three points. We knew the result between St Mirren and Rangers, we all said this is a chance to get away from the bottom two and put a bit of distance between us. We've got another game next week [away at St Johnstone] that we’ve got to be looking to win as well."

Livingston have now lost two in a row and were given a harsh lesson on the perils of not taking your chances in the top flight. Striker Menga was one of those guilty of missing the many opportunities the visitors had, and he admitted: "It was a very difficult game. We had the majority of the possession and we had opportunities to win the game, but we didn't score and I include myself in that. We found it very difficult to score. Hamilton had one chance and scored with it. It's hard to take. But we will keep our heads up for the next game against Celtic.

"We remain confident and we will stay together. We have a great spirit at Livingston. I think we will be better in the next game.

"I enjoyed the physical side of it. Every game is a difficult game and there was a lot of fighting against their defenders. But I didn't take the one chance I had to score. It was a good opportunity and I think if I had scored it would have given us more confidence."