County are posted missing

have the worst away record, having not recorded a victory on the road.

But the Dingwall side appeared set to end three months of frustration in some style when they threatened to score five times in the first half-hour.

Woods, a County loanee last season, denied Andrew Davies twice, Michael Gardyne and Jay McEveley before Boyce headed a cross wide.

The Accies goalkeeper was eventually beaten by a shot from Davies from close range but Grant Gillespie popped up on the line to deny County the lead their superiority merited.

However, mindful of his previous profligacy, Boyce did not squander a second opportunity when he rose behind the defence to head Gardyne’s cross powerfully into the net in the 39th minute.

Schalk’s arrival as a replacement for Curran did not augur well for Hamilton as the Dutchman quickly made his presence felt.

But his finishing touch deserted him on an afternoon when Hamilton’s Dougie Imrie made his 400th senior appearance as a second-half substitute.

In truth, Hamilton rode their luck to remain in ninth place in the Premiership, one point behind their Highland rivals.

But manager Martin Canning did not feel a need to apologise after admitting that he was happy with a point.

‘If I’m honest, Ross County were probably slightly better than us and created more,’ he said.

‘But I feel it’s progression for us. It’s a game we would have lost in the past, but the boys dug in really well when it wasn’t going our way.

‘You need to find a way to stay in the game and then it took a bit of magic from Ali Crawford.

‘This league is so tight that if Ali had scored with the one he put over the bar, we could be sixth.

‘Now we need to make sure we continue to perform better than we did today.’