BY BEN MCNICOL
Hamilton moved to the top of Group E in the Premier Sports Cup after completing a dramatic late turn around at The Falkirk Stadium.
Aidan Nesbitt opened the scoring within 43 seconds of the second-half restart but two late goals from Ronan Hughes and Jamie Hamilton sealed an important three points for the New Douglas Park side.
Brian Rice handed a start to midweek signing Lewis Spence in the place of Hakeem Odoffin while Hamilton replaced Brian Easton in defence.
Falkirk boss Paul Sheerin made three changes from the emphatic 5-1 win against Albion Rovers, as Steven Hetherington, Aidan Nesbitt and Anton Dowds replaced Brad McKay, Seb Ross and Jaime Wilson.
Hamilton started confidently and they created the game’s first opening after four minutes when David Moyo found himself clean through one-on-one, but Robbie Mutch made a fine save to deny the forward.
Accies continued to dominate the early exchanges and created another terrific opportunity to open the scoring.
Moyo’s cross towards the back-post found Ronan Hughes and his powerful strike pulled out another top class save from Mutch.
Falkirk managed to put together their first attacking move of the match shortly after the half hour mark when a well worked corner found the head of Paul Dixon and his looping header was cleared off the line by the Hamilton defence.
The Bairns came out flying in the second-half and scored within a minute of the restart as Nesbitt was given far too much space inside the box and slotted the ball into the bottom corner beyond Hilton.
Hamilton piled bodies forward in search of a leveller as the game went on and Rice sent on Andy Ryan for his second debut for the club and the 26-year-old made an instant impact from the bench.
He won the visitors a penalty after racing beyond Gary Miller – who was also sent off for the last man challenge.
Hughes was handed the responsibility from 12-yards and he made no mistake with a well taken spot kick to pull Accies level.
The momentum shifted in Accies favour following the equaliser and the large waves of pressure from the visitors paid off in the 87 th minute as the two centre-backs linked up inside the box and Jamie Hamilton headed home his first Hamilton goal from close-range.
Hamilton: Hilton, Stirling, Hamilton, Want, MacDonald, Hughes, Spence, Mimnaugh, L-Smith, C-Smith (59), Moyo (76).
Subs: J-Smith, Easton, Meikle, Munro (59), McGowan, Gaffney, McGinn, Redfern, Ryan (76).
Falkirk: Mutch, R-Williamson, Miller, Dixon, McCann, Hetherington, Nesbitt (80), Telfer, McGuffie (60), Morrison (90) , Dowds (60).
Subs: Martin, Hall (80), Wilson (60), Ross (60), Keena (80), Weekes, C-Williamson.
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