Hamilton 4
Ross County 0
League (Premiership)

Match Report

Source unknown.

Hamilton Academical made it four league wins from five and consolidated second place in the Premiership by defeating manager-less Ross County.

Martin Canning rose to head in Danny Redmond's corner before Mickael Antoine-Curier converted from the spot.

The Guadeloupe international scored another penalty after Uros Celcer was sent-off for fouling Dougie Imrie.

Michael McGovern saved Richie Brittain's penalty for County and Jason Scotland fired Hamilton's fourth.

But Alex Neil's Accies had the upper hand in the opening exchanges - perhaps inspired by chairman Les Gray's ice bucket challenge on the New Douglas Park pitch pre-match.

The hosts' right-back Ziggy Gordon played a nice one-two with Imrie and fired in a low shot which skimmed past Mark Brown's post.

Imrie himself had a close-range effort well saved by the County goalkeeper less than 60 seconds later.

Darian MacKinnon's through-ball was just a touch too heavy for Englishman Redmond as Accies looked fairly comfortable without making their superiority count.

However, Accies' captain Canning ensured that changed two minutes into the second half.

The big centre-back, who spent seven years at a County earlier in his career, rose to head home Redmond's corner high into the net.

One became two when Antoine-Curier stroked a penalty low into the bottom right corner.

It came about from Rocco Quinn's foul on Frenchman Tony Andreu at the corner of the box.

Celcer saw red in County's fifth straight defeat

And Accies had another spot-kick less than 10 minutes later when County's Slovenian defender Celcer pulled down Imrie in a last man challenge which resulted in a red card from referee Willie Collum.

Antoine-Curier did the business again, opting to put it in the same place as his previous strike.

Then the visitors were awarded a penalty of their own when Gordon's innocuous tackle on Liam Boyce had referee Collum pointing to the spot again.

Captain Brittain, charged with overseeing County with Ferguson following the departure of Adams, stepped up but ex-Staggies goalkeeper McGovern dived right to save.

Redmond, Andreu and substitute Louis Longridge all had shots saved by Brown, which prevented Accies' lead growing.

But it did eventually get notched up when substitute Scotland was on hand to turn in from a Longridge pass.