HAMILTON’S immediate future will be as a Premiership club as once again they have somehow managed to prove their many doubters wrong by beating every odd known to man.

As for Dundee United, what happens next to this fine football which has given so much to Scottish football is far from certain. If the rumours are to be believed, they were desperate needed promotion given their less then brilliant financial situation.

Jobs will be lost and for the second year they find themselves in the Championship. Let’s hope they can find a way to avoid finding themselves in real trouble.

But what can you say about the Accies?

Yesterday there was no Massimo Donati, injured, Dougie Imrie, captain for the day, did make it but had bruised ribs and the influential Darian McKinnon was suspended. And, of course, captain Michael Devlin was in the stand having ruptured his cructiate ligament.

And yet this tiny club, and that’s what Hamilton compared to so many others, continue to out-perform. Sure, there are better teams but surely there can’t be many in which such a strong spirit exists.

Next season will be their fourth in the top tier, which is a club record.

Martin Canning was close to tears at the end and no wonder. This season has not been easy for this decent man who for many home matches has had endure personal abuse fired his way from some supporters.

His job was to keep the club up and he did that. Good on him.

Sean Dillon, the United defender, lost his temper with one of his own supporter at the end. That’s how much it means to players and fans. Another season in the Championship was not what anyone wanted, especially manager Ray McKinnon who looked like death at the end.

Say what you like about the play-offs and the fairness of them, and plenty have over the last four years, but they had some real excitement to the end of the season, even the quality of play here was, shall we say, a tough watch.

Given everything which was at stake, and we are talking about peoples’ livelihoods here, this was understandably not pretty. Indeed, it was downright ugly at times. Essentially, it was the kind of game you would expect from a tense occasion on the awful surface at Hamilton.

First blood almost went to United. Five minutes had gone when Blair Spittal aimed his cross from a corner to where Tony Andreu was lurking and the striker’s first time shot brought out a superb save in Remi Matthews.

Hamilton were quick to respond when five minutes later a mistake by Willo Flood meant Rakish Bingham took the ball forward and with a nice piece of skill, sent two United players the wrong way before he passed to Ali Crawford who ought to have done better than sending his effort straight at Cammy Bell.

An error did seem to be either team’s best chance of a goal. United coughed up another one on 25 minutes when Charlie Telfer’s loose pass allowed Crawford to manoeuvre himself into space with the ball at his feet. He shot, Bell saved but couldn’t hold and, incredibly, Paul Dixon got there to clear and in doing so hit the ball off a rushing Danny Redmond and the Accies player was stunned that the ball flew over.

Hamilton went even close to a goal moments later. A Redmond free-kick was cleared only to Crawford just inside the penalty area and his shot was a goal all the way until Bell pulled off a save he had no right to.

The trend of mistakes being made continued right up until four minutes before the break. A good United move put Telfer in a good position on the right to cross, which he did, and Hamilton defender Scott McMann’s attempted clearance only succeeded in sending the ball into the top corner, only for Matthews to pull off a remarkable safe.

As the second-half went on, the game had a next goal’s the winner feel to it.

Hamilton almost got it on 57 minutes when substitute Louis Longbridge's ball to back post picked out Imrie who was denied by the brave Bell who took the shot in his body from a few yards out.

And then came the moment of the play-off.

With 64 minutes on the clock, Hamilton's McMann passed through a number of United player to Ali Crawford who had his back to goal on the edge of the box. His pass to Greg Docherty allowed the midfielder some precious time to aim his shot past two rushing defenders and along the ground into the bottom corner.

The directors box at New Douglas Park is right behind the press boxes. You could see the colour drain from the faces of the those from Dundee.

McKinnon’s men huffed and puffed but never looked like getting an equaliser. Murray did get one shot on target with six minutes to go, a half volley from the edge of the box which Matthews dealt with, but that was about it.

It was to be Accies' day.