Despite two early injuries and a second yellow card for Mikel Miller, Brian Rice's side made it four games without defeat to move four points clear of bottom-of-the-table Hearts and up into 10th place above St Mirren.

Kilmarnock, though, were profligate, failing to take a number of chances, and fall to eighth in the table - four points adrift of the top six.

Hamilton's bravery pays off

Ever since their promotion in 2014, Hamilton have been the favourites to be relegated. Each season they have managed to produce a Houdini act.

Hearts had overhauled them at the bottom of the table on Tuesday but, 24 hours later, Rice's side pulled off a shock win over Rangers at Ibrox.

And now, after three consecutive clean sheets and four games without a defeat, they again are leaving others trailing in their wake at the bottom of the table.

It was a fraught 90 minutes in Lanarkshire, against a Kilmarnock side who badly needed the three points themselves in order to keep their top-six hopes alive.

Hamilton's luck appeared to desert them early, with Jamie Hamilton and Blair Alston both hobbling off in the first half with injuries. The home side were weakened and vulnerable, but Kilmarnock could not put them on the canvas.

Chris Burke hit the ball straight at the goalkeeper for the visitors, before Eamonn Brophy met a cross only for the ball to bounce off him and into the hands of the goalkeeper.

At the other end David Moyo couldn't get the ball past Laurentiu Branescu after latching onto a mistake from the defence, while Okgmpoe twice headed just wide.

Hamilton were becoming second best. However, they were being spared by poor finishing from their visitors, who had a lot of possession, a lot of shots at goal, but little was landing on target.

But the home side, under intense second-half pressure, nearly stole the lead against the run of play when Kirk Broadfoot blocked Okgmpoe's first effort before Branescu saved the rebound.

And they went even closer when Branescu came for a cross and got nowhere near it. The ball spun behind him with Shaun Want just needing to nudge the ball into an empty net, but Stephen O'Donnell did enough to put him off.

Back came the visitors, with Luke Southwood saving Broadfoot's effort from a corner, and as they kept up the pressure, Miller received his second yellow card.

But rather than keep everyone behind the ball, Rice's side kept trying to get forward, and they got their reward for their bravery when Ogkmpoe was fouled by Stuart Findlay. Up stepped the Greek striker to slide home a vital penalty to earn the points.

Man of the match - Alex Gogic

BBC Scotland's John Barnes at the Fountain of Youth Stadium

Hamilton's Alex Gogic started the day in the centre of midfield but once again showed his versatility by dropping back to the centre of defence when Hamilton went off. His positional sense and defensive qualities were again evident as he thwarted Brophy and Nicke Kabamba.

Ogkmpoe put in another good shift in attack and scored the vital penalty. But Kilmarnock's players are missing a killer touch at the moment.

'The boys were unprofessional' - reaction

Hamilton Academical head coach Brian Rice: "It's a phenomenal performance and what a fantastic week for us.

"It's a pressure penalty at that stage of the game, but big Marios [Ogkmpoe] has been fantastic for the last three, four weeks."

Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer: "The boys were unprofessional. Hamilton went down to 10 men, we had control and a lot of chances but not being clinical, and then we let them in from some rash play.

"We've had good opportunities. We played well in parts of the game. It's unprofessional that we've given them a sniff and at this level you get punished."