Alan Cochrane @ New Douglas Park

A large Kilmarnock travelling support saw another early exit from a cup competition to so-called inferior opposition, bringing back memories of last year's trip to Cappielow, but on the night, Hamilton were by far the superior team, and are worthy of their place in the next round of the League cup. Goals from McCarthy after 15 minutes and McArthur after 36 were considered bad goals to lose by Jim Jefferies as the danger could have been cleared by the Killie defence, but it was typical of Hamilton's young players being keener, sharper to the breakdown, and picking up loose balls all night.

From the first whistle things did not look promising. David Lilley saw a header from a Rhian Dodds corner flash the wrong side of the post, Willie Gibson shot over, and Frazer Wright headed over from another corner, but when Rhian Dodds had to go off after only 8 minutes, to be replaced by Iain Flannigan, Killie's woes continued to mount. Hamilton's young side's energy and commitment were beating them into second place all over the pitch, and when they went ahead it was no surprise. A cross was not cleared properly, James McCarthy was on to it quickly, and drove his shot past the diving Alan Combe. Hamilton could have scored again when Winters beat offside easily but shot into the side netting, but did go two ahead when David Lilley failed to clear, and James McArthur repeated the earlier punishment.

David Fernandez and Ryan Jarvis came on at half-time to try to pull the fat out of the fire but that never looked likely. Things were made worse when David Fernandez complained too long to Kenny Clark about Hamilton's time wasting (which was insignificant) and his yellow card became a red when Mr Clark suspected his follow-up Spanish was less than complimentary. Salt was rubbed in the wound when Alan Combe had to pull off the save of the night from Brian Easton to stop things looking even worse.

We had to wait for an hour after the final whistle to hear what Jim Jefferies had to say about it, as the team had to hear first. The manager was visibly hurting, and he admitted that they had had an inquest in the dressing room before coming to speak to the press. He asked the players what they had been doing correctly before, and are not doing now. They gave him what he considered to be the right answers, so he is now challenging them to start doing those things again. He laid it on the line that they have got until the next transfer window to put it right, because if we have never been the best team with the best players, we did play with a passion and commitment which allowed the football to come through, and that has to come back. Starting on Saturday at Easter Road.

Hamilton: Halliwell, Gibson, McCarthy (Easton), Elebert, Swailes, Winters, McArthur, Offiong (Wake), Stevenson, Gilhaney

Kilmarnock: Combe, Fowler, Murray, Lilley, Wright, Ford, Gibson, Dodds (Flannigan), Nish, Bryson (Jarvis), Johnston (Fernandez)

Referee: Kenny Clark