Accies hold on for Dundee defeat
Hamilton returned to winning ways at New Douglas Park as they held on for a hard-fought and crucial three points from a narrow 2-1 victory over Dundee.
A blistering start from the home side saw Tony Andreu break the deadlock in the opening stages with his 10th goal of the season before a stunner from Mickael Antoine-Curier doubled their advantage soon after.
Half-time substitute Greg Stewart dragged Dundee back into the match with a fine individual effort, but despite some late pressure, the Dens Park men could not salvage a point.
The victory means Hamilton stay in fifth, one point behind Aberdeen, and the defeat for Dundee sees them drop to eighth in the Premiership table.
Hamilton were pressing high up the park in the opening stages and Antoine-Curier forced James McPake into conceding the corner that led to the opening goal as he tried to head the ball back to goalkeeper Scott Bain.
McPake cleared the initial delivery from Ali Crawford, but - when the ball was fed back to Grant Gillespie - his high cross to the back post was headed across goal by Mikey Devlin, where the on-rushing Andreu arrived to head into the top corner from six yards and give Hamilton the lead after just two minutes.
Worse was to follow for the visitors as Antoine-Curier produced a moment of magic to double the Accies' advantage with only 13 minutes on the clock.
A nice passing move on the left gave full-back Stephen Hendrie time to wrap his foot around a cross that picked out Antoine-Curier brilliantly at the back post, and the forward produced quite a stunning finish, volleying first-time high past McBain who got a hand to the ball but could not keep the powerful strike out.
Dundee were looking shell-shocked by Hamilton's whirlwind start, struggling to find any sort of rhythm and being unable to get lone frontman David Clarkson sufficiently involved in the game at any point during the opening period.
Indeed, their slack passing was presenting opportunities to Hamilton, and Andreu went close to his second and Accies' third when he fired just over from the edge of the box following a loose pass from Martin Boyle.
But the home side were more than happy to settle for their deserved two-goal advantage at the break.
Dundee manager Paul Hartley threw on Stewart at the break for Boyle in an attempt to turn the tide of the match, but the substitute was at the centre of a penalty claim at the wrong end almost immediately, with Accies claiming in vein that he had clipped Gillespie's heels as the stand-in right-back got in behind the visiting defence.
Antoine-Curier then flashed a volley across the goalmouth from a narrow angle as the play continued to flow towards the Dundee goal.
They came even closer to a third moments later as a well-worked corner from Crawford found Andreu arriving at the front post, but this time the Frenchman could only skew his effort wide through a ruck of bodies in the Dundee box.
Stewart then provided the spark that his manager had been hoping he might for Dundee as a moment of inspiration out of nothing dragged them back into the match after an hour.
The substitute picked the ball up midway inside the Hamilton half and turned brilliantly away from two Hamilton players before driving at the heart of the home defence.
With the Hamilton defence backing off, Stewart shot powerfully but directly at Michael McGovern who seemed to be deceived by the movement on the ball and allowed it to slip past him into the net.
Suddenly, Accies were looking ragged, but a long-range effort from Hendrie that slid just wide of the post almost restored their two-goal cushion.
Dundee then went close to finding the equaliser and again it was that man Stewart with the effort. McGovern doing well to beat away his deflected strike on this occasion after he had been played in by Clarkson.
Careless play from Darian MacKinnon then presented the ball to Clarkson who slid it in to Craig Wighton inside the area, but the substitute's curling effort after a clever turn dropped agonisingly wide of the post.
That was as close as Dundee were to come as Hamilton held out for the crucial victory that their earlier dominance perhaps deserved.
To add insult to injury for the visitors, Gary Harkins, who had earlier been substituted, was red-carded in injury time following an altercation on the touchline.
Source: PA
