Lee Clark happy to rely on Kris Boyd's goalscoring instincts

Boss Lee Clark welcomed the presence of Kris Boyd in his side after the veteran striker's landmark Kilmarnock goal helped the visitors to a 2-1 Ladbrokes Premiership win over Hamilton at the SuperSeal stadium on Saturday.

The Englishman was serving a one-game touchline ban and watched from the stand as a Louis Longridge strike in the 26th minute gave Accies a deserved interval advantage.

However, Boyd, back in the starting line-up after being on the bench for last week's home defeat to Motherwell, levelled with a header in the 70th minute for his 100th goal for the Ayrshire club over three spells before substitute Souleymane Coulibaly secured the points with a fine strike three minutes later.

Clark lost striker Josh Magennis during the week when the Northern Irishman moved to Charlton in a deal which reportedly could eventually net Killie #250,000.

He will decided whether he uses any money he gets from his board to replace Magennis directly but in the meantime knows he can turn to Boyd - who scored his first Killie goal in a 2-0 win over Motherwell at Rugby Park in November, 2001 - even though the 32-year-old former Rangers, Middlesbrough and Portland Timbers forward missed a good chance in the first half when the game was goalless.

He said: Kris was a big player for us when I first came through the door last season and he is going to be a big player for us again, especially with the type of wide players that we have, who will get on the outside and create chances.

He is always between the posts and he is probably gutted about the one in the first half.

But as I said many times about him he is a proper goalscorer who doesn't get fazed if he misses a chance.

He is in there for the next one so hopefully we will get a few more goals from him if we make the chances.''

The Lanarkshire side started the league campaign with an encouraging 1-1 draw at Ibrox but once again struggled to see out the victory in front of their own fans.

Accies had lost a lead in the 2-1 Betfred Cup defeat by Championship side Morton in midweek yet failed to learn their lesson and now have only one win in their past 16 league games at home.

I think it is (a concern),'' said player-manager Martin Canning.

I know you can't harp on about performance but if performances are good then results should come.

The performance was good. The last two league games, looking at them purely on performance we should be sitting with four points at least.

We are sitting with one so that is a bit of a concern if you look at it that way.

We need to make sure that we are more solid. But we still had two or three good opportunities to go and at least take a point from the game and again we don't take our chances.''