Thomas Konrad suffered physical and emotional pain as Dundee were forced to settle for a point on Hamilton’s artificial pitch.
The German defender was on the receiving end of a blow to a tender part that saw Darian MacKinnon red-carded.
However, while Konrad shrugged off that injury, he was still hurting after full-time when he reflected on a missed opportunity to claim three points.
The Dark Blues were already leading through Kevin Holt’s deflected strike, and had been denied a clear penalty, when Konrad was left writhing on the touchline following a retaliatory kick by MacKinnon.
However, the 10 men fought back to level through Dougie Imrie’s late goal, the Accies striker incensing Dundee assistant manager Gerry McCabe with a provocative celebration in front of the away dugout.
Konrad said: “I think after the red card and playing against 10 men we must do better so we’re not happy with a draw.
“But it’s really, really hard to play here one of the hardest away games of the season so I suppose one point is good.
“For the red card I didn’t see who did it but I was on the ball and I just saw someone kick me between my legs after the whistle from the referee. Luckily he didn’t hit me 100% so it wasn’t too sore!”
However, it was the manner of Dundee’s failure to claim all three points that hurt most for Konrad and his colleagues.
After an evenly contested first half the Dark Blues went ahead just after the break when Holt unleashed a 25-yard drive which took a wicked deflection off Carlton Morris to leave home keeper Michael McGovern wrong-footed.
A few minutes later the Dens men should have been awarded a penalty when Rhys Healey, making his first start, raced through on goal only to be pushed from behind by Lucas Tagliapietra.
It looked a clear penalty and red card but Dundee’s appeals were waved away be referee Willie Collum.
Collum, though, did impose the ultimate sanction on MacKinnon for his assault on Konrad, leaving the visitors with an extra man for the last half-hour.
They failed to make the advantage count as Accies stepped up the pace and twice had “goals” disallowed before Ziggy Gordon crossed for Imrie to convert with just three minutes remaining.
Despite the sense of disappointment, Konrad added: “We’ve done well so far. We were sixth before this game and we were sixth last season.
“We want to do better this year and we are still in the game so we’ll see. There are still many games to go.”
Manager Paul Hartley echoed the defender’s sentiments when he said: “We’ll take a point because it puts us in a really nice position after the first quarter.
“We’re two points off third position and under the radar a little bit and long may it continue.”
Hartley added: “The most disappointing thing for me and the players is that we didn’t see the game out. This is a difficult away fixture for any side so when you get your noses in front you’ve got to show the clean sheet mentality.
“They probably played better when they went down to 10 men but we had to be better organised as a unit. We also had good attacking situations where we didn’t convert the right pass so I’m disappointed not to get the three points but it’s a point from a difficult away fixture.”
Hartley, who had to step in to restrain McCabe following Imrie’s controversial celebration, revealed: “Dougie came up to our bench to celebrate the goal and I’m not quite sure why he did that but that’s what happens in football.
“People score goals and they sometimes go over the top a bit but I think they’ve kissed and made up.”
Imrie later held up his hands and said: “Emotions got the better of me as I was delighted to score especially after the two disallowed goals.
“It was silly and I’ve apologised I don’t know what happened.”
Meanwhile, Hartley refused to blame the New Douglas Park pitch for the injury that saw defender Julen Etxabeguren stretchered off near the end.
The Spaniard’s ankle injury will be fully assessed today but Hartley said: “I’m not sure if the pitch was a factor and I haven’t spoken to the player yet.
“We know it’s a difficult pitch to play on and the players know that but we’re not here just to blame the pitch on injuries.”