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By Kenny Crawford BBC Sport Scotland at New Douglas Park

Hamilton Academical progressed to a Scottish Premiership play-off final against Hibernian by narrowly beating Falkirk.

Tony Andreu's finish proved decisive in a match where Accies' Kevin Cuthbert made three wonderful saves.

Mark Beck, Will Vaulks and Conor McGrandles were all denied during a sparkling performance by the goalkeeper.

Accies host Hibs on Wednesday, with the return leg at Easter Road on Sunday.

And Alex Neil's Hamilton side will be confident of having the attacking prowess to cause Hibs problems, and potentially end a three-year hiatus from the top flight.

Despite not having beaten Hamilton in any of their five previous meetings this season, early long-range efforts by Falkirk's Mark Millar and Stephen Kingsley suggested that trend could end.

Cuthbert dealt with those strikes easily and the 31-year-old former St Johnstone man would emphasise his worth more spectacularly later.

The hosts' opener came after 16 minutes via the right boot of French talisman Andreu, once of Livingston and surely soon of the Scottish Premiership, be it with Hamilton or someone else.

However, the ball only arrived at the attacking midfielder for his fifth goal in three games because experienced Falkirk defender David McCracken misjudged a bouncing ball and was out-muscled by Jason Scotland, who cut back for Andreu to finish from six yards.

Frenchman Tony Andreu grabs the all-important goal for Hamilton

As Falkirk tried to reply, Millar curled a lovely free-kick on to the head of a diving Beck and most of New Douglas Park expected the net's bottom corner to ripple, but Cuthbert found the agility to claw it wide with his left glove.

In addition to Andreu, Hamilton's fearless winger Louis Longridge looks ready for a step up. He twice got the better of Kingsley on the right side to drive in on goal, but the Falkirk man recovered to block the first and the second was cut-back to Scotland, whose shot got smothered.

After the break, the visitors' Rory Loy had a lobbed effort cleared off the line reasonably comfortably by Ziggy Gordon.

And as Falkirk increased the pressure, shooting towards their own fans, Accies had an inspired Cuthbert to thank again for keeping them in front.

He dived high to his right to turn away Vaulks' well-controlled side-foot volley, before stretching left minutes later to push away McGrandles' low strike from the edge of the box.

McCracken then almost atoned for his early mistake but his header at the back post was deflected wide.

From there, Longridge had Accies springing forward and substitute Andy Ryan ought to have wrapped it up instead of dragging a left foot effort wide of the near post.

Ryan sent in a better shot from Andreu's square pass soon after, but goalkeeper Michael McGovern was equal to it.

And right at the end, Falkirk's Luke Leahy produced an outstanding headed clearance off the line to ensure Ryan did not get his name on to the scoresheet.