Accies score four past lowly County
Hamilton's fine start to the Scottish Premiership season continued as Ross County remain without a single point so far following a 4-0 defeat at New Douglas Park.
Their boss Derek Adams was sacked on Thursday due to such a poor run of results but it was the same old story for the Highlanders.
Goals from Martin Canning, Jason Scotland and a double from the penalty spot from Mickael Antoine-Curier secured the points for Accies on what was another day to forget for County, who ended the match with 10 men after Uros Celcer saw red midway through the second half.
Coach Steve Ferguson was tasked with taking charge of teams affairs until a replacement is appointed, with the likes of Danny Lennon and Terry Butcher quickly linked with the job.
However, Patrick Kluivert has now emerged as a surprise candidate, according to reports on Saturday.
Accies handed out more than 1,000 free tickets in the South Lanarkshire area for this match as part of their 'Bring Back the Roar' initiative.
And it was the home supporters who had more reason to be excited in the opening exchanges as Hamilton twice came close to opening the scoring.
Dougie Imrie teed up a shot for Ziggy Gordon but he drilled inches wide of the post.
Tony Andreu then screwed an effort just over the crossbar from Grant Gillespie's cutback following some impressive play from the home side.
Accies still looked more likely to find the back of the net and Antoine-Curier went down in the box under pressure from Uros Celcer but there was no penalty award from referee Willie Collum.
Darian MacKinnon then stabbed into the path of Antoine-Curier but the ball came to him too quickly and he fired straight at goalkeeper Mark Brown, who was able to save the point-blank shot.
The first half ended goalless but the match sparked into life in the second half as Accies surged into the lead two minutes after the restart.
Danny Redmond whipped a corner into the box where Canning was waiting to nod home at the back post.
The referee then pointed to the penalty spot with 57 minutes on the clock when Andreu was felled in the box by Quinn, and Antoine-Curier stepped up to convert from 12 yards.
The home side increased their lead further five minutes later with their second spot-kick of the day.
This time Celcer was deemed to have denied Imrie a clear goalscoring opportunity and was shown a straight red card before Antoine-Curier again hit the target.
Incredibly, Collum handed out a third penalty - this time to County - after 67 minutes for what looked like a coming together between Gordon and Liam Boyce.
But hopes of County hauling themselves back into the game were shattered when Richie Brittain was denied by goalkeeper Michael McGovern, and Joe Cardle's rebound was hooked to safety by Mikey Devlin.
Scotland then put the gloss on the win for Accies when he met a cutback from Louis Longridge and produced a nice finish to add his name to the scoresheet in injury time.
Source: PA
