St Johnstone got their first point of the season against Hamilton, but a top six Premiership place has still to be secured.
It was a comeback draw but a frustrating one, as Accies had to play for over half-an-hour with 10 men.
Brian Graham cancelled out an early goal from the hosts but they couldn’t convert almost total possession in the closing stages into a winner.
Saints got off to the worst possible start, conceding a goal in just seven minutes.
Perth old-boy Nigel Hasselbaink helped the ball on to Ali Crawford, after the visitors were hesitant in defence, and Crawford had a simple six-yard finish.
There was no flow to the Saints play in the opening stages, with Steven MacLean (left out of the side because of the artificial pitch) sorely missed.
As the first half progressed it got marginally better, but a couple of half-chances was the best that Tommy Wright’s men could produce.
On 20 minutes Danny Swanson tried his luck with a speculative shot, but there were no Celtic Park-style end product.
And four minutes later Michael O’Halloran took the ball round keeper Michael McGovern on the edge of the box but the angle ended up being too wide for a shot and the attack faded to nothing.
Simon Lappin replaced Murray Davidson at half-time and he almost made an immediate impact.
Graham crossed from the right and Lappin slid in at the back post only to see his goal-bound shot blocked.
The Saints cause was aided just before the hour mark by Hamilton player/boss Martin Canning getting a straight red for cutting down O’Halloran wide on the right.
They had over 30 minutes to get back into the game, and nearly did it in three.
O’Halloran picked out an unmarked Graham with a perfect cross but the on-loan frontman steered his header inches wide of the post.
Credit to Graham though, because when another chance came his way on 72 minutes he made no mistake with a back post header from Lappin’s cross.
With two minutes to go a Brian Easton shot from the edge of the box went through a ruck of players but didn’t touch any of them and McGovern was able to gather.
Easton had an even better chance in stoppage time with a header from a Lappin corner but he couldn’t direct it on target and Saints had to settle for a draw.